NYCSI
by NYC2016
Summary: Don Flack's life gets turned upside down pretty quickly when he meets Emily Porter, his future girlfriend, wife, mother of his children. Does he know that when he meets her? Nope! Does she? Not a clue. Follows the script and the show. Will be rated M for later chapters.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter One**

**Emily**

I walk into the precinct on my first day. I follow Mac Taylor, a detective and a scientist, to my new partner's desk.

"Flack." He looks up and our eyes lock. Damn his eyes are blue. He's got short black hair and broad shoulders. "Meet your new partner, Emily Porter." He stands. Wow he's tall.

"Pleased to meet you. Don Flack." He holds out his hand and I grasp it. We shake once and let go.

"Emily."

"I specifically requested that she be put on this staff and be your new partner."

"Angell not good enough?"

"No, she's getting transferred. That's her own decision. She's going into vice." Don nods. He wanders around the desk facing the side of his and taps it.

"This will be your desk for the time being. My old partner used to love it this way but it could be time for a change. Just let me know if you want to move anything around and I'll help by moving mine." I nod. I'm a shy person unless I'm working in the field or coming up with solutions to homicides. "All right Mac, I've got it from here." Mac Taylor nods and walks away to go to the crime lab. "So where are you transferring from?"

"Seattle PD."

"Oh really? Seattle is the coffee capital."

"We kind of had our own Starbucks in every precinct." Don smiles. Damn his smile is so pretty.

"How old are you?"

"Twenty-eight. What's with the interrogation, Detective Flack? I thought I was in the clear," I say smiling, knowing it's a joke and so does he.

"Just trying to figure you out."

"And listen to my west coast accent. It's so different from here."

"Don't worry, you'll be talking like a New Yorker soon enough."

"Wonderful, just what my family wants to hear when I call them at Christmas; is this a prank call?" I say imitating their voices. Don laughs. "How old are you?"

Instead of his answer to my question, we hear his phone go off and assign him, us, a case. "Here's your first case in homicide."

"Yipee."

Turns out the murdered is a deaf girl and she was shot. Don and I walk outside of the house. We talked to first responders while we waited for Mac and his team to get down here.

"Anybody been inside?"

"Yeah, us and first on scene," Don replies.

"Radio said there was a gun shot victim."

"Yeah, Allison Mitchum. She's nineteen. The mother is over there in the back of the bus with the baby, a neighbor told us that the husband was out-of-town on business. No witnesses," I tell Stella Bonasera

"We've got unis and plain clothes combing the neighborhood and K-9 is on their way up to see if they can pick up a scent."

"Were there signs of a robbery?"

"Aside than Allison's life, nothing was taken."

Don and I go back to the precinct for a long night ahead of us. I brew the coffee and we go over paper work. He teaches me how this precinct like things to go and I learn a lot after that on my own. I take my first sip of the coffee here and I spit it back out into the cup.

"Hot?"

"A bit. But it's disgusting."

"Well we don't have a Starbucks in our precincts. Besides, you'll get used to it. It's not like you can go out and buy coffee every few hours here. It's just not possible on a cop's salary."

"I know, they discounted stuff all the time for us because we are cops and then they would save our coffees if we were called out unexpectedly. They memorized our badge numbers."

"What was your badge number?"

"8019. It was my dad's."

"My old partner's badge was her father's as well."

"I wear it because it honors my dad. He died in the field. He was shot and the vests weren't as great back then and he died when I was a teenager. It's been at least ten years."

"Em, I'm sorry."

"It's fine. I'm sad again but I'm not going to act like I did when the cops came to the school and told me."

**Flashback**

_"Right, he's so cute. I wonder what he looks like with his shirt off," I say to a friend about our teacher. We were the typical teenage girls. I watch someone with a note come in and hand it to our teacher. His eyes scan over it and he looks at me and gets up. He hands it to me and it says to go to the office immediately. "I've got to go. My dad must be off work and must be ready to take me home."_

_ "Bye, Emily!"_

_ "Bye, Allie!" I walk to the office texting some friends. When I walk in I see a couple detectives that work with my dad and our families are really close. My eyes go wide. "What are you two doing here?"_

_ "Emily, your dad. He, he was shot. On the way to the hospital, on the bus, he, he didn't make it." I drop to ground, feeling my stomach drop to the deepest parts of the abyss that is my soul. The one that was quiet the whole time bends and sits next to me, hugging me to himself._

_ "No!" I shout into his shoulder, hysterical. He even called me in the car to tell me he was going to a dangerous bust._

"His last words to me were, 'Emily I love you'. I was very worried when he called and I was anxious and a friend of mine knew what was going down so she distracted me by talking about our teacher at the time. He was very attractive." Don smirks. "Hey so what do you want me to call you? Don? Flack? Don Flack?" I laugh.

"Either one. If you call me by my full name, I'm going to think you're mad at me."

"I'll keep that in mind."

"Thirty-one."

"What?"

"That's how old I am."

"Well thanks for answering my question, Detective. What grade are you? First?"

"Yeah."

"That's what I thought. I'm second. Almost to first. Then I got transferred."

"You'll get there."

The next day, Mac pulled Don and I into questioning. He knows I've got a reputation in getting information out of people but I'm not the best observer. That's what Don is here for. He's great at everything he does.

"Do you know why you are here?" I ask. The man shakes his head. "Well Allison Mitchum is dead. Her baby is still alive. We've been told that you're the father." My technique was using the blunt truth.

"My baby? No way."

"Are you telling us that you didn't know Allison was pregnant?" Don asks. I take out a piece of paper and hand it to him. "Is this not your name on Elizabeth's birth certificate?"

"I have no idea how my name got on there." He starts sweating and his face turns a light shade of pink. "Honestly. If this were true she would have told me."

"Seth," Mac starts. "You were expelled from Columbia six months ago. You were caught cheating. 4.0 you got your freshman year was bought and paid for."

"I don't see the point." I get why he brings it up. Cheating, buying his way out of things.

"The point is, you're a proven liar," I say with a firm grasp on Elizabeth's birth certificate. "Why don't you tell us what you were doing in the nursery last night."

"You think I killed Allison?" Seth looks at me.

"'Seth, we're thinking Allison asked you to step up to the plate, man up. But you just weren't ready to settle down so you decided to do something about it."

"Wrong. Look, I suppose there is a possibility I could be the father. But I had no idea until you told me. You think I'd marry her? She's deaf." He says chuckling.

"You're a real piece of work," Mac says. I storm out of the room before I hear what Don has to say. I go back to my desk and I sit down before I go back in and hit him in the face.

Don comes back out a few minutes later. He's angry.

"What's up with you, Em?" He asks when he sits down at his desk.

"I just hate the fact that he made fun of her because she was deaf. A very good friend of mine was deaf. He started talking to me one day and I learned sign language during the time when we were really close. We still talk but we don't see each other. He and I would always talk in class. We used to pass notes all the time. He was new when he started talking to me and it was nice to have a friend I could talk to and no one knew what I was saying. He was very observant."

"So you took this that seriously then?"

"Yes. I did. I feel really shitty about it but I don't care what you or Mac says. It's something that could have happened to anyone." I push my hair out of my face. "Did you get the prints and DNA?"

"Yes. Mac got them and he was out before me."

"I didn't even notice. I did notice, that kid right there staring at me though." I point at the one person in the room that was staring and it was at me. Don looks over and scowls.

"He's just jealous that I get to sit next to a pretty girl and he gets to sit next to Coyle." I laugh. Coyle is a douche monkey. I hate it and I dislike him. He thinks he's all that and a bag of chips.

Later in the day, Don and I are talking about the fact that Seth isn't the father and someone else is. We came to the conclusion that he was there not to kill Allison, but to take baby Elizabeth. We also got some evidence to back up our theory.

Don and I go to Mac's office in the crime lab, which is glorious by the way, and we tell him. The shock on his face is evident.

"How do you know?"

"We hit Cole's apartment. He wasn't there but we found a lot of brand new baby stuff," Don tells him.

"Crib, diapers, formula. Cole was getting ready to play daddy," I finish. Mac gets on the phone and dials Gina's hotel room number.

"Gina's not at her hotel." We start thinking of possible ways to approach this without anyone getting hurt or someone finding out. Mac's phone rings and he answers.

"I want Elizabeth. My daughter's coming with me. Turn left at the light." He says.

"Call Sheldon. Give him Gina's number, have him triangulate a cell signal, get us a location. Cole Rowen has Gina and the baby." Don and I follow him out and he gets on the phone immediately.

"This is Flack, give me dispatch." Don explains what is going on and we go downstairs after we talk to Sheldon, who is very nice, and we get in the car. We speed up and turn the lights and siren on. "Repeat, we've got a hostage situation. Notify highway, ESU, and hostage negotiator. Stand by for further instruction." I have Mac's phone and we listen to Cole scream at Gina and the baby crying in the background. Thank goodness she won't remember this.

"Once we get out of the city, I'll let you go. But you have to promise me something. We have to tell the police that I didn't mean to kill Allison. It was an accident."

"Accident my ass," I mumble.

"We were fighting. I'm sorry! It didn't have to come to this, but I deserve to have a say in how my kid is raised."

Don turns to me. "I just got a 911 from Dennis Mitchum, Gina's husband. He reported the abduction. Santucci's on his way to pick him up." His phone rings again. "Flack. Yeah. Great, where?" He hangs up a second later. "We got him." He's so calm through out this entire situation. He must have done this, sadly, a million times before. "North bound, headed toward the bridge at 155."

We catch up and I get out of the vehicle with Don. We have our Kevlar vests on and our guns are at our sides, ready for the draw. Don gives instruction to some by standing officers and I walk up to the front of the crowd of police cars, observing the scene. I see Mac pass me and continue to walk to the car. He starts talking to Cole.

"What's that?" Don asks as something flies at Mac.

"An external transmitter. Cole can't hear without it," I tell him before the translator does.

"Come with me," he tells me. "I got an idea." We walk around to the other side of the car and we sneak up and Gina sees us. It seems like I'm waving but I tell her to roll the back window down where Elizabeth is. She does. I reach in and I pick up baby Elizabeth and I hold her to my chest as I turn away from the car quickly. I wanted to protect this life from as much as possible. I run to the crowd of police with Elizabeth while Don and Mac run into action and arrest Cole.

Walking up to Elizabeth's grandfather, Dennis, I get really close to him as I hand over Elizabeth. I sign that she is a gorgeous baby and he smiles. He pulls me into a hug as a thank you and I smile, glad that the rest of the family is safe. Heartbroken, but safe.

Don walks up to me after everything is over and we are back at the precinct. He starts talking. "We did good tonight. I didn't know how you would do but you're better than I expected."

"I'm glad I'm a good cop."

"You're a good detective."

"Thanks Don."

"You're the only one who ever calls me that."

"I am?"

"Mac does every once in a while. You call me Don all the time. I like it. Everyone else calls me Flack all the time."

"Good, cause I'm going to keep calling you Don. It's your name." He smirks.

"Yes ma'am."


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two**

**Emily**

A few weeks went by without any thing extremely serious happen. Flack flirted with me. We found this transgender person in the men's bathroom, it was a man trying to become a woman, and Stella asked what a woman was doing in the men's bathroom and Don, being the person that I've learned him to be, says to me, "oh I can think of a few reasons. All with happier endings." I rolled my eyes at him and we went on the solve the case as is.

Then there was this case. A deranged crazy woman thought her own refection was someone else and hated it. She thought it killed her brother when in fact she accidently pushed him into the several hundred gallon tank and while Stella, a person who has grown to be a good friend of mine, cut herself on a piece of glass with blood on it. The victim's blood. If you're wondering why this is such a big deal, it's because the victim, had HIV. It was rapidly changing into AIDS.

Thankfully it wasn't. She came to me in the precinct and told me when she got the news back that it wasn't. I had gone with her to get her blood drawn and she was grateful for me. I didn't tell a soul and she knew it too. She didn't have to ask me because I know that that stuff is private.

There is this case. The case that Don finally asks me out on a sort of date.

I'm observing Mac and Stella with the crime scene when Don walks in. He's so attractive with his tall, well-put together suit, blue eyes, and short black hair. I guess it was a lot longer but then he cut it and he's just so damn attractive.

"Our vic's still a Jane Doe. We're checking missing persons."

"Who found her?" Stel asks.

"Night watchman. 75 years old." I look down. "I was here before Don was. I live just up the road from here. In New York terms, just under ten blocks from here." They nod. "The paramedics are treating him for shock. Did you get a chance to talk to him Don?"

"He gave me grunts and one word answers. But we've got enough. I'll send a uni in to get his statement. Says he left to check out the Luke Blade stunt, he came back, found the vic."

"Luke Blade. He sawed himself in half, right?"

"Yeah, it's part of his three tricks in three nights thing."

"Oh yeah! You and I were talking about that a few days ago during lunch. Isn't it all a big secret what he's gonna do each night?"

"I think so. It's called Luke Blade: Death Becomes You or something like that."

"Becomes me. It's Death Becomes Me." He looks at me. "What? You need to have correct information for when we present this to a jury." Don rolls his eyes smirking slightly. Stella looks at me with a knowing look.

I listen to them rammble on about the rest of the facts till Don and I leave to go back to the precinct.

* * *

><p>After quiet a few hours of paper work and a few cups of coffee, Don and I were sent on another mission, to track down Rupert Lanigan. We walk into his magic shop and we stand there waiting for him to stop his magic act.<p>

"Rise tiny creature. Rise. Go forth into the world and prosper." He waves his hand over the fly several times and then it rights itself and flies off. "Welcome to Magic Paradise, gentleman and gentle lady, where anything is possible, if you believe in magic."

"Fake fly?"

"Sodium Chloride. Introducing a fine, nearly invisible pinch of salt onto the waterlogged fly reestablished the salt to water equilibrium necessary to enable the fly to conduct its cellular metabolism."

"I like the fake fly theory better."

"What are you, the magic police?"

"That was easy to explain." I hand him pictures of the dead woman. "This is a little trickier."

"Is that Vienna? Did something happen to her?"

"She was murdered last night," I tell him.

"You think you can wave your hand over her, bring her back to life?" Don asks, being a smart ass.

"Your fingerprint was found on the wooden box."

"We sell these boxes here. They're too big to have on display, so I store them upstairs. I might've handled that one."

"Tell me about you and Vienna."

"I love Vienna.

"Yeah, and nothing says I love you back like an order of protection."

"She used to come into the store a lot, did Luke Blade's shopping. She was a big flirt. I might've taken it the wrong way, went a little too far."

"No, no, no. You went John Hinkley on her, Rupert. Come on, three arrests in two months?"

"Why was she shopping for Luke Blade?" I ask.

"She was his assistant."

"What were you doing last night between 8:00 and 10:00?" I ask.

"I was in hours 15 and 16 of my anger management class listening to some bloke blame his dead ma for punching a meter maid in the face. Part of my probation. Check it out, if you'd like. Now, anything else?"

"We'll take this." I put down a Luke Blade CD and I fork over ten dollars. Don and I walk out and he turns to me.

"You think Luke Blade was involved?"

"He's connected to the victim and time of death doesn't rule him out. When mind, body, and spirit come together, anything is possible. Even murder."

"So what was that science lesson about back there?"

"I took a few forensics and chem classes in college. Techncally, I got a degree in forensics. That's why I'm a second grade detective."

"But you were good back there. You should be a first grade."

"Thank you."

* * *

><p>That night, Don, Stella, Mac, Danny, and I went to the last few minutes of Luke Blade's stunt where he sets himself on fire then to talk to Austin, Luke Blades illusion manager. It was odd to see someone on fire and not screaming in pain like in the movies. The crowd counts down the last ten seconds and he falls but when the smoke from the extinguishers is gone, he pulls back the hood and it is revealed that he blew himself out.<p>

Mac gets a call in the middle of the end and him and Danny wander off and tells Stella that Austin is dead in an alley. We shuffle out of there. Stella first then me and Don follows with his hand on the small of my back. I don't think anything of it because I don't want to look into it and then get disappointed.

Don and I get in the car we came in and drive off.

"So, Em."

"Yes?"

"What would you say to pizza and some beers and a movie at my place on Friday?"

"I would say yes."

"Great," he says after flashing me a charming smile. "I'll just pick you up after work."

"Okay."

* * *

><p>Later on Sheldon Hawkes, the coolest ex-medical examiner in the world, comes down to the precinct and tells us that we need to go talk to Rupert again with some photos of different items and ask him about them. So Don and I agree and we get back into the car and drive off toward the magic shop.<p>

"Well, well if it isn't the great debunker. What can I do for you this time, detectives?

"We are looking for a way to make our caseload disappear, Rupert. You got that in your bag of tricks?"

"They're not tricks, they're illusions."

"Whatever."

"Actually, we're looking for these items," I say handing him more pictures. "Are they sold separately or they come in some sort of kit?

"You won't find these on any shelf. This stuff dates back maybe 30 years."

"You know where we can find them?"

"Our shop manufactured a bunch of kits, but only-only one included handcuffs. I might have one out back."

"Would you do us a favor and look?" He turns away to go looking for us.

"He likes you," Don says.

"What? No. He's just being polite because if he doesn't cooperate he can be charged with obstruction of justice."

"And he thinks you're pretty." I raise my eyebrows.

"Do you think I'm pretty?"

"Pft. No," he says as a pink blush graced his cheeks and the tops of his ears. I'm about to start talking again but Rupert walks back out.

"This is what you're looking for. It has all three items you showed me in those photographs. You better return this, though. It's a collector's item. I don't want to find out you two pulled a Houdini on me." I stifle a laugh.

"Thank you." Don and I walk out and his hand is on my lower back again as he leads me to the car. He opens the door for me and I thank him. We go to the crime lab and take the elevator up. We get the magic thing to Sheldon and we are stopped in the middle of the hall by Danny. He's grown to be a good friend. He's using the nickname thing though.

"Hey Seattle, I want you and Flack to do something for me."

"Sure, what is it?"

"Tell Mac that I'm going away for a few days. I'm going to Montana to visit Lindsay."

"The court thing right?" He nods. "Does she know?"

"Nope. Could you not tell her? I know you two are growing close."

"Yeah, no problem. We will tell Mac right away and then I won't mention a word to Lindsay."

"Thanks Seattle." He reaches around my shoulders for a hug and I reciprocate it.

"Anytime Danny." He walks away and we head on over to Mac's office. I knock on the glass door. "Hey Mac,"

"Emily, Don. How are you?"

"Irritated and tired," I say. "I'm sure Don is the same way, right?"

"Yeah, I'm pretty beat. You're gonna have to drive me home one of these days."

"Good luck with persuading me to do that." I chuckle and he smiles down at me. I look back up at Mac and he's got the same look Stella had in her eyes when we found the body and Don and I were talking about the Luke Blade stuff. "Anyhow, Danny told us to tell you that he's taking some time off. Going to Montana."

"Lindsay's trial, right. Stella has been talking to her. She says it's going good."

"That's good. I just hope the jury convicts this guy. He's doltish and a bunch of different and worse adjectives but still." Don looks at me with that same wonder in his eyes as when I gave the science lecture at the magic shop earlier. "I was an English freak back in high school."

"I've just never heard of the word doltish until now." I laugh when he repeats the word I said.

"That word and that accent just don't mix." He laughs as well. "All right well Mac, I think we are gong to head out. Apparently I need to drive him home. I'll see you tomorrow bright and early."

"So I'll see you at ten o'clock?"

"If you're at the precinct when I get there, then yes Mac. You will." I smile and take Don's arm, leading him away.

"You know, I'm going to get off before you do tomorrow, right?" Don points out.

"You are?"

"I get off at four."

"A whole two hours, all right. I can manage that. When do you want to do dinner?" I ask him as we step into the elevator.

"Does eight work for you?"

"Yes."

"Then that's when we'll do dinner." I smile as does he. "By the way, you don't have to drive me home. It was a joke."

"I know. If you ask at anytime, I will though. It'll save you cab fare cause no one wants to pay cab fare."

"Exactly."

* * *

><p>The next afternoon when I come back to my desk with a fresh cup of coffee, Don gets a call from Stella asking him to track down Luke Blade. I help at every chance I get. Two brains is better than one. When I find something, Don and I are up in a flash running to the crime lab.<p>

We run into Mac's office and he starts. "We've got to move. Em found out that Luke's people reported one of their trucks missing. LoJack just pick it up on the corner of 23rd and 11th, next to the warehouse where Luke stores his stuff."

"Showtime." Don and I get in one car and Mac and Stella in the other. We get there in record time and Mac shoots the glass container holding water and a woman, Luke's adoptive mother who gave him back. He starts screaming no and Stella and I point our weapons at him telling him to freeze and Don gets him to the ground and puts the cuffs on his wrists. Stella and I still have our guns aimed at him when backup gets here and they get him in the back of a police car.

"That was crazy," Don says to me.

"I know. He has fetal alcohol syndrome though. It's normal for violent outbursts and tantrums to be thrown. I took child psych when I was a freshman in high school before you ask," I tell Don when I recieve a look from him.

"You are just about the smartest detective I've ever met that doesn't work in the crime lab."

"Really?"

"Most of us just have a high school diploma. Me included."

"You're a good man, Don. You're intelligent as hell too. Plus you don't curse. At all! I have a toilet mouth and I know it but you don't. You find alternatives to say what you mean. If I were you, I'd pride myself on being respectable."

"Thank you, Em."

"You're welcome." We walk away from the scene. "You know, you're the only person who has called me Em since my dad died. He was the only one to ever call me that. It was his nickname till he died. Everyone always knew, don't call Emily by her shortened name, she'll break out into tears. I kind of like hearing it come out of your mouth."

"Really?"

"Yes."

"Well in that case Em, let's go get dinner and watch a movie. You deserve a little time off. You've been a great detective the past couple of days." I smile and I let him lead me away from the crime scene.

* * *

><p>We get two pepperoni pizzas and beer. His apartment is nice, smaller than mine, but nice. His couch is super comfy too. We pick out a comedy and laugh the whole night away. It's fun and it's nice to stay in and watch a movie as a date instead of going out to dinner. We watch another movie after the one we do watch and that's when I fell asleep on Don's shoulder.<p>

When the movie is over, I'm still sleeping and Don had fallen asleep too. We are sitting there on the couch sleeping somewhat on each other and we don't wake up until early in the morning.


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: You guys are lucky! It's a day early! I usually post these on Sundays. Please, review! I love hearing what you guys have to say!

**Chapter Three**

**Emily**

I wake up a week later on the couch. Wait, why am I on the couch? I look around and I'm not even in my own apartment. My eyes widen when I see what I'm laying on. I'm laying between Don's legs, on his chest. How the hell did we end up like this?

I reach for my phone which is on the coffee table and I check the time. It's eleven at night. Great. It's Sunday tomorrow and I don't have to work. I think Don does but later in the morning at like eleven. Our shifts are so wonky and all over the place. At least we are partners. I lay my phone back down on the table top and I lay back down on top of Don and his left arm moves and curls around my midsection. Smiling, I close my eyes once more and I fall back asleep.

When I wake again, the smell of coffee attacks my senses. It smells so much better than the coffee at the precinct. I sit up when I'm sure Don isn't under me and I wipe my eyes. I hear footsteps and I see Don walk toward me with his usual attire on but no shoes or jacket. He looks damn fine.

"Hey, I made coffee. I don't have any creamer or sugar so I made you black coffee with some milk."

"Thank you, Don." He hands me the mug and sits down next to me. "When did we fall asleep?"

"You actually fell asleep pretty quick. We started the movie and about a half hour into it, you were laying on me fast asleep."

I blush. "Sorry about that."

"It's fine. You work two consecutive doubles. You deserve some sleep. Besides next time, we should go to your place. It's much closer to the precinct than here."

"It is. I like it. At least I don't have to work today."

"Actually, Mac called your phone."

"When?"

"Like ten minutes ago. I answered for you. He wasn't surprised that we are together right now. He told me that there's a DB in the UN facility. Wants us on it."

"What time is it?"

"Eleven thirty."

"Really? I was up a half hour ago." I stand taking my coffee mug to the counter to continue drinking it while I put my shoes on. "Anyhow, what was the function last night at the UN facility?"

"Some french thing," he says walking over to me. I blush once again. "How long did you take french?"

"I took four years of french in high school. J'adore la française. Je n'oublie pas française."

"No idea what you just said but it sounded sexy." He places his hands on my hips as he speaks.

"Why thank you, detective." I lean up and kiss him.

Oh! I should probably tell you about our first kiss. Totally forgot, I just wanted to get to this case because it's so interesting.

So Don and I were taking a walk after work a few days ago and I know you think it's going to be a moonlit walk and we are going to kiss under the stars and it's going to be magical. No, that's not what happened. We took a walk and we were discussing our next date and he wanted to take me out to a nice resturant and I agreed.

He walked me home and he came in for coffee and we were sitting at the counter on the bar stools that I have and he pushed my hair behind my ear.

"You've got a bar in your ear."

"Oh yeah. It's called an industrial. There are three cartilage piercings too but they aren't in. I can switch them or have them in at the same time. I got them when I was a teenager." He smiles and leans in and we kissed. It was unexpected but we are keeping things under the radar for now. Mac and Stella sure as hell won't care if we get together. I think they are team Don and Emily. And that's how our first kiss happened.

Anyway, back to the story. Don and I get to the scene of the crime and we get the information we need so we can report back to Mac about it.

"I'll take this one Don. I've got a better french accent than you do." He smirks and lets me do the talking. "You know Mac, I wasn't going to work. I was going to lounge in my sweats, maybe read a book or two. But nope. Dead bodies are more important than my afternoon of relaxation." Mac laughs at me. I smile and continue. "Simone de Lille. She got trapped in the guillotine. A couple of guests tried to get her out but it was jammed."

"The things just a prop, couldn't have hurt her." Stella says.

"The blood, is from a small cut on her forehead. Certainly not fatal." Mac states looking at the blood drops on the ground under her head.

"So if the guillotine didn't kill her, what did?"

"I don't know, but we'll find out soon." I pull Don away and we go talk to some more people about what happened. And we find out something pretty juicy.

"Hey Mac, so get this," Don starts. "The French Ambassador was taken out of here by his security detail, but so was a 15 year old girl."

"Daughter of a french VIP?"

"American. The only kid here. Hostest of the shindig."

"The hostess?" Stella asks.

"Yeah. Isn't that something? Evie Pierpont." Stella face turns to recognition and she looks disgusted. "Yes those Pierponts. And witnesses say she pulled the handle on that guillotine."

"All right Mac, I've got this. Flack, you're driving."

"Engines running."

"Emily, have one of your guys impound memory cards from all the cameras. If she was poisoned here, we might be able to see our killer."

"I'm on it." Then the detective inspector marches his way in here and tells us that the body is off limits. How rude. But we've got a fresh blood sample on Hawkes' gloves. "Don, wanna give me a ride to the precinct? I'm going to walk home and take care of a few things."

"I'll just drop you off at your apartment." I nod and I get in the back of the car while Stella sits next to Don in the front. He takes me to my apartment and I get out to go change. I shower and change into a nice black shirt and some grey slacks with some comfortable but functional heels. They are the nicest work shoes I have and I love wearing them.

I wasn't going to wear them today but I decided, why the hell not. It's better than putting on a business suit with strapy heels then getting fucked on the boss's desk. Actually that sounds great but it's cold outside and I love being a cop. That stuff doesn't happen in real life, just in the books and movies.

The walk to the precinct isn't very long. It's cold because it's the middle of the night but I'm all right. I've got both my guns on me and I've got my badge and if someone really wants to mess with me, I've got a tazer and pepper spray. I think I'm all set.

* * *

><p>Later in the morning, Don wakes me up from my half asleep nap on my desk and hands me a coffee.<p>

"What's up?" I ask.

"We've got another DB since we can't work on the one in the UN we got put on a different case. Famous chef." I nod.

"Okay, I'm up. I'll catch a second wind here soon." He helps me up from the chair.

"Danny and Lindsay are working on this one with us."

"Cool, we've worked so many with Mac and Stella. It'll be nice to have a change."

When we arrive and get the information that we need, we meet Lindsay downstairs with Danny following us.

"Meet the former future of the Manhattan foodie scene. Alec Green, 38 years old. This was his third restaurant. He's considered one of the greatest chefs in the country under 40."

"Who found him?" Danny asks.

"Manager. Today was the big opening day. Last night was "invited" dress. Critics, wine-distributers, mucky-mucks," I say.

"I thought that you two got the UN case."

"Oh we did, Saturday night in the city Linds, you know how it is," Don says smiling. It's nice to see him smile.

"Good to be back." She bends down to look at the body. "Rigor shows that he's been dead for 12 hours at least."

"He may have been dead while the guests were still eating their creme brulee last night."

"This is an odd cork-screw. It's.. it's inscribed with something. It looks like some kind of an award."

"Seattle, who's got access to the vault?"

"No one. This vault was Alec's pride and joy. The only way in was through him."

"So this is where he housed the million dollar grape juice, huh?"

"Are you kidding me? This place is amazing. Mounton Rothschild, Montrachet, Barbaresco. The wine in this vault Dan, worth tens of thousands of dollars."

"How do you know?" I ask. "Are you some kind of wine connoisseur?"

"Just maybe. I wish we could afford one of these wines. It would be perfect for our next date," he says to me while we look around in the back.

"Oh yeah? And where is our next date?"

"Some place. You don't get to know all the details yet. Dress warm though. It's a night time date." I giggle and nod.

"Flack, I think Danny's kind of wine is the house Chianti," Lindsay teases. Don and I laugh.

"That's where you're wrong. My favorite kind of wine is beer." Danny turns the flashlight he was putting batteries into, on and looks down. "All right, we got lots of glass and wine spatter. Looks like the bottle was open when it was broken, so it didn't come off the wine rack."

"Came from the table over here," Don says.

"So we have a glass of wine and a stoppered bottle, so somebody opened a bottle to taste it. And then maybe, it got dropped in a struggle."

"From the diameter of the spatter it looks like the bottle was thrown and thrown hard."

"Okay so there's a fight, and someone throws a wine bottle at our vic."

"And then maybe Alec rushes the attack," Lindsay says.

"And then he gets, uh, screwed to death."

"6.5 Mess. Little shaky on the landing." I chuckle and take Don's arm to lead him out of the way so Lindsay and Danny can do their jobs.

* * *

><p>"A cockroach?" Don asks, astounded. "Why was their a cockroach in his mouth?" I make a face and Don chuckles. "Em is grossed out." He laughs. "Call me wth anymore updates." He hangs up the phone.<p>

"Ew!"

"The cockroach, yeah. That's pretty disgusting."

"But in his mouth?"

"Yeah, it crawled out and it was covered in blood."

"Gross! I hate bugs. They are so nasty. Cockroaches are one of the worst. I hate spiders. Absolutely loathe them. When I was younger it didn't matter the size I would cry everytime. I had a few bad experiences and I had very bad archnaphobia. It's a little better now. I don't cry very often when I do see one but it still happens when it's big enough." Don starts laughing at me. "It's not funny."

"But it is, Em. You moved to a state that has over twenty different poisonous spiders in it." My eyes go wide. I put my face in my hands and I breath through my nose and out through my mouth several times. I can definitely feel my anxiety levels going up. "Em, it's okay. Not many of them are in the city. Most are in upstate New York. Like two are in the city and even then buildings everywhere are exterminated and spiders die."

"I'm okay. I'll just have terrible nightmares tonight."

"Well to take your mind off of it, let's go talk to some of the employees at his restaurant."

* * *

><p>"Can't believe it. Second day on the job, my boss is dead. Just my luck."<p>

"Sure you didn't see anything?" I ask. He looks at me, well my boobs.

"Uh-uh. No. My manager came up," he looks away from my breasts and puts something between his teeth. "white as a sheet, told me to call nine one one. Here I am. Out of one job. Who knew you needed three jobs to live in this city."

"Thank you for your time," Don says. "Did you see that?"

"Him looking at my breasts, yeah I did. Pervert."

"I meant the thing between his teeth but yeah I saw that. Perfect time to hit him, right?" He's sarcastic with his response.

"Calm Don. You can hit him later if he did it and we have to chase him. It was a slip up Mac, it won't happen again," I impersonate. Don laughs. "Perfect, right?"

"Yes. Let's go back to the precinct. Maybe Danny and Lindsay will have something for us."

"I hope so."

* * *

><p>That night Danny calls Don and I and tells us everything. Well me, I remembered the information better than Don and I recite it back to him. Him and Lindsay are going to the busboy's place and Don can't come with them because he's eating a late night dinner with me, but Danny called back a couple hours later, saying that he and Lindsay went to the apartment and there were bugs everywhere, on the floor, on the dishes, on the walls, on the busboy. Then he kills the chef over a bejeweled cockroach, the same one as the one found in the chef's mouth.<p>

"Why does this city have to be so obsessed over the oddest things?"

I shrug. "No clue. But you want to come back to my place tonight?" I ask. "It's closer to the precinct."

"Sure."

"I'll make dinner. My shift is over right now by the way. See you in a few hours." I walk past him and sneak one look over my shoulder and I smile at him.

* * *

><p>I make a homemade soup and sandwiches for Don and I. He loves it and takes seconds. I'm glad.<p>

"Who knew you could cook."

"I used to cook with my dad all the time when I was younger and all of the recipes just sort of stuck with me."

"It's very good. Thank you."

"Of course."


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter Four**

**Emily**

Don and I wake up next to each other in my bed a few weeks later. He looks at the clock on the wall and groans.

"Em, I've got a raid to do today." I instantly worry.

"Stay in bed with me." I wrap his arms tighter around my midsection and he scoots closer to me if it was even possible. "I'll be cold if you leave." I pout, hiding the fact that this scares the shit out of me, and he kisses my lips.

"You'll warm back up."

"Maybe, maybe not." I kiss him again. "Hurry back to me," I say giving him a peek into what I am feeling right now.

"Will do."

"Good luck."

"Thank you."

"Be safe!"

* * *

><p>A few hours later I see Don on the news talking about his big raid.<p>

"At six o'clock this morning, our narcotics tactical team seized 900 kilos of cocaine. That's an estimated street value of over 100 million dollars. We also apprehended several suspects we believe to be connected to the Wilder crime family."

"Detective, isn't this the biggest drug bust in the history of New York CIty?" A reporter asks my man. And my man looks damn fine in his button-up and kevlar vest. Damn fine.

"That's what they tell me. What I can tell you is that today's seizure will financially cripple one of New York City's most dangerous crime families."

"We understand there was a shoot out." I immediately start to worry. "Were there any casualties?"

He clears his throat, shit. Not good. "One suspect was killed, one detective sustained minor injuries."

"Can you confirm rumors that Gavin Wilder was killed during the bust?"

"Gavin Wilder's body was found at the scene. Without going into too much detail I'm confident that doctor Peyton Driscoll's autopsy report will confirm that he was dead prior to the raid on the warehouse." I stop watching and I get dressed. An hour later, I was called by Mac to help out with observing the processing of a major case. I think he wants me to move into the crime lab but I want to stay in the precinct with Don.

* * *

><p>When I get to the warehouse Adam is kind enough to greet me and let me in and Danny is already here as well. I feel something hard against my head and pain and I'm unconscious.<p>

* * *

><p>A few minutes later, maybe more, I'm pushed against a wall next to Danny and Adam. I see Danny's fingers smashed.<p>

"Did he break your fingers?" I ask.

"Yeah."

"Hey Adam, what'd they do to you?" I ask when I see the cigarette burn marks on his hands. "They wanted something. Danny I'm sure you've been over this, what did they want?"

"They wanted his ID and the pass codes to the parking garage for the crime lab. They also wanted to know where their guns and drugs were from Flack's raid this morning."

"God damn it," I said. A bit too loud for the Irish men's taste. One of them came over to me and kick my shin. Shit, I don't want to be out of work for a long time.

"Shut up or worse will happen."

"No! Do something about it."

"You asked for it girl." He kicks me in the side and then shoves the butt of the gun into my head, hard, then aims it at me. I comply and I shut up. A few minutes later I see Danny trying to set his fingers back in place with his shirt sleeve and his badge and I look to him.

"Wait." I remove my belt from my shirt, which kills, and I fold it a bunch of times. "Bite this." he does and he sets his fingers back in place without making too much noise. After he's finished he turns to Adam.

"Adam, what have you got in your kit, buddy?"

"What are you talking about? My kit's all the way over there."

"Just tell me what you have in there."

"Presumptive blood tests, enough kit stuff to case with, a narco test kit."

"Test kit. Test kit. That's good. That means... that you got a Marquis Reagent in there, which contains sulfuric acid. I'm going to need you to go get it." Adam and I look at him with wide eyes.

"Uhm, Danny, that's suicide. I'll grab it. I know how to be sneaky. Growing up as a girl with a cop as a father isn't fun and you learn how to sneak around." Danny ignores my plea for Adam to not go. He must have a plan.

"If they were going to kill us they would have done it all ready. They need us as hostages. I know you're afraid but so am I. But you are going to get it. You understand me?"

"How am I supposed to...?" Danny gets up and starts running. He starts shouting at the people keeping us hostage. Adam gets out and grabs the thing Danny was talking about and I hear Danny groan and grunt with pain. I close my eyes.

"You're going to make a call."

"Don..." I hear. My heart starts beating rapidly. Don! He'll be able to get us out! "It's Messer. We got a problem man. We got a problem. Yeah, Emily is here." I start to cry. He's probably worried sick. I don't hear the rest but I do lean into Adam's embrace.

* * *

><p>About a half hour later I hear helicopters and murmuring. Then I hear Don's voice over a walkie-talkie. More tears stream down my face.<p>

After a little bit when I don't hear Don's voice anymore, I get my phone out quietly. I scroll to Don's contact and I send him a text.

'_Donnie, it's me Em. I need you to be safe if you're going to bust in here. These men are dangerous and will snap and kill one of us any second if we provoke them. Danny and Adam aren't doing well, they need help._'

I turn the ringer off right after I send the message so the men holding us captive don't know anything.

'_How are you doing?_'

'_Not as bad as Danny and Adam. Help us._'

'_Working on it Em._'

While I'm texting Don, Adam and Danny are getting us out here. I hear Don's voice again. Something about proof of life. One of the captors runs up to me and screams at me to get up. I do with his forceful tug on the collar of my shirt, breaking a few of the buttons off. Wow, cheap clothes nowadays. Then I feel myself getting pushed forward toward the opening as Danny sprays something in the guys face. The other one comes over and I take the gun the first one dropped and I shoot him several times while Danny wrestles with the other one.

I hear the cops come in and Adam gets up with me. "Don't shoot!" I scream crawling to the edge of the place I've been in the past few hours. "They're cops!" I yell again. Adam helps reveal them and saves their lives. Thank God for Adam.

"Danny!" I hear Lindsay say. "Flack!" I see her yell. "Oh my God. Oh my God, Danny." She helps him get off the lift and helps him stagger out of here. I see Don rushing toward us and I smile at him. I turn over on my back and I sigh. Finally, something I can look forward to.

"Em, where does it hurt?"

"Everywhere," I breath out. He picks me up bridal style and carries me out of the warehouse. I wrap my arm around his shoulder and he sets me on a gurney in front of a bus.

"Em, I can't come with you to the hospital. I need you to tell the paramedics what's wrong though. I'll have a uni get your statement later."

"No, I want you to do it." He nods and kisses me quickly.

"The crime lab is under attack. I need to leave now."

"Go."

* * *

><p>Several hours later I see Don walk into my hospital room. I smile.<p>

"Don, you're here!"

"Of course I am. I wouldn't just abandon my girlfriend now would I?" I smile and laugh with joy till my side hurts and he notices it. "Now I have to stop cracking jokes. What hurts?"

"My side, my head, my leg."

"All right. What are the injuries?"

"Severe concussion, my spleen is bruised pretty badly, and my leg, well it's fractured so I'm going to miss several weeks of work. How are Danny and Adam? Are they okay?"

"They're fine. They were both let go from the hospital hours ago. Lindsay is staying with Danny and Adam, well his flavor of the week is taking care of him." I smile.

"So that means you're taking care of me?"

"Yes. I'll come by every night after work and when I work doubles I'll call you." I nod.

"Come here," I say as I scoot over in the bed. Luckily they gave me a bigger bed than usual and now Don could fit up here with me and sleep next to me as if we were in an actual bed. He crawls up onto the bed with me and I snuggle into his chest. "Thank you."

"You're welcome." I lean up and I softly press my lips to his. I hear someone clear their throat and I pull back smiling. I look over Don's shoulder and Mac and Stella are standing in the doorway.

"Finally Mac. They're together," Stella says.

"Have been for weeks guys," Don says. I giggle and lay down.

"Good. I was getting sick of those longing looks between you two and those not so hidden smiles that you were flashing her, Flack."

"What can I say, I'm in like." I laugh again. Wow the drugs must be kicking in. I feel great, sore, but my mood is terrific.

"All right well she looks tired. I think we are going to go. Just wanted to check in on you Emily."

"I'm great. Don is here and I'm tired and I can't feel very much pain."

"She's high on the drugs the hospital gave her," Don says to them. "She'll probably be better in the morning. Mac, when are you leaving for London?" London?

"A couple of days from now."

"Good luck," Don says. I curl up into a half ball since my leg is broken and is up in the uncomfortable sling thing.

"Night Don."

"Night babe." He kisses the top of my head and I pass out.

* * *

><p>A few weeks went by and I was at my apartment and Don was with me taking care of me like he said he would. I was laying down on his lap with my leg propped up on the arm of the couch and I was helping him solve a case.<p>

"Could the wife of done?"

"No, her alibi checks out."

"What about," I strain my neck and I see a picture of some guy that I know isn't the victim. I touch his picture. "Him?"

"Maybe. His alibi checks out but there was that case where Mac and Danny came across a business that created fake alibis for like cheating."

"I'll come with you to recheck everyone of them tomorrow. Please, Don, please?"

"Maybe. I'll think about it."

"You'd get to spend the day with me," I say smiling.

"Maybe babe." I hope he'll say yes. A few minutes later when my eyes are starting to droop shut, Don asks, "tired?"

"Yeah, I'm tired. I'm gonna go to bed. Meet you in there?"

"Yeah, I'll get you water. Go to the bathroom before you lay down." I nod "I'll meet you in there in five. I need to make a call to Stella, tell her you'll be working with me tomorrow on the rechecking alibis thing."

"Yes!" I lean over and press a kiss to his lips. "When are you getting up tomorrow?"

"Eight."

"Kay. I'll be up with you, thank you!"

"Anything for you, Em. You know that."

"I suppose so." I kiss him then do my nightly routine.

* * *

><p>The next morning Don and I are talking about everything while we are in the car together. He talks about his family. He's got a sister named Sam and Don himself is a junior. His father is Don Flack senior. I talk about my brother and sister. They were the ones that took care of me after my dad died. My mom on the other hand is a forbidden subject. He knows that too.<p>

"So what was your dad like?"

"Sweet, caring, loved his family. Wasn't one of those mean cops that came home and beat their kids like they say happens. No, he was a good man and an even better dad."

"That sounds wonderful. It's a shame he was taken away so early."

"I know. I regret not spending more time with him closer to when he died. I just didn't think it was going to happen to him. He was better than that. That's one thing that I regret."

"I agree from what I've heard."

"Thank you." Don reaches over and grabs my hand.

"All right, what's the next address?" I rattle off another address and we start driving. "You know what, after work how about we go to this bar I know, it's a cop bar."

"All right sure. Let's invite some people along. Do you want to stay at your place tonight, or mine?"

"Your's."

"You've been staying over a lot. What does you apartment even look like?"

"I don't know." I laugh and we check an address. "What's this supposed to be?"

"Uhm, not a motel."

"And who's alibi was this?"

"The wife's."

"Let's check the other guy's. The one you pointed to." I nod and tell him that address. We drive there in a comfortable silence and when we get there, his alibi checks out.

"So the wife could have done it?" I ask hopeful that I'm right.

"Possibly. Let's go to the crime lab and talk to Stella about it." I nod, finally getting back into the swing of things and I'm not even going to mention that I am working today, again. The first time in ages. Thank goodness.

He helps me out of the car when we get to the crime lab and we take the elevator up. I lean against Don instead of on my crutches as we wait for the right floor. He wraps his arm around me to keep me up right.

When we get to the crime lab, we walk out, well he does. I use my crutches to limp out. He reminds me everyday that I should just get a wheel chair then I remind him about the stairs going up to my apartment because there is no elevator then he agrees and I stay with my crutches.

Walking into one of the labs where we see Stella, I start talking. "Stel, we think the wife did it."

"Me too."

"We just double checked alibis and the wife's is the only one not true. I thought that Danny and Mac shut that alibi place down?" Don asks.

"I thought so too. I guess not."

"Well what do you have that makes you think its the wife?" Don asks. I lean against him again, worn out from all the movement I've had to do.

"Other than her alibi not panning out, we have her fingerprint on the knife and on the victim's shirt."

"He wasn't killed by the knife though," I say. I memorized this case the night before when we were laying down reading about it.

"He was shot in the abdomen."

"Who preformed the autopsy?"

"Sid. Peyton isn't here, she's with Mac in London."

"All right Don, let's go talk to Sid." I stand up and I balance on my crutches and I walk toward the elevator. I get right outside the door when Don wraps his arm around my waist pulling me back.

"Ah, ah, ah. No you don't. Go sit in with Lindsay. She'll be less inclined to yell at you for being at work while you're still injured."

"You always take all my fun away." I pout but he kisses my lips.

"I'll be right back." I watch him leave with Stella and I wander around trying to find Lindsey. When I find her, I walk into the lab and I sit down in the seat next to her.

"Hey."

"You're back! What are you doing in the crime lab if you're back?"

"Well actually I was helping Don with the case y'all are working on and he ditched me to go with Stel to see Sid."

"Sid would yell at you for being at work with a broken limb."

"He didn't yell at Danny."

"Sid didn't yell at Danny because Danny's a big boy, you on the other hand, he cares about you and doesn't want to see you hurt."

"I love Sid but sometimes I just want to do my own thing without everyone worrying about me constantly."

"I get it Seattle. Lindsay won't stop worrying about me and can't do her job half the time." I smile when I see Danny walk in and kiss the top of Lindsay's head. "I'm going to lunch, want anything?"

She shakes her head. "No. I packed a lunch."

"Right. I forgot." She smiles at him as he walks away toward the elevator.

"You two are so sweet with each other."

"Yeah, I like being around him."

"How's he doing with the whole, hostage thing?"

"Better everyday. How are you doing?"

"I don't think it has really kicked in that it happened. I mean for a while all I saw on TV was the news and the coverage they got on what happened there and here at the crime lab. It never really clicked in my head. Besides, Don is always with me and he's just the definition of safe in my mind. I feel very safe and well protected when I have him around me. I love that about him."

"I'm glad he makes you feel safe."

"Me too. I think it's given me a lot of stablity in the world of crime and murder."

"I didn't used to have that. Then Danny came along." Lindsay smiles, thinking about her comment, then draws herself back into the conversation. "But with you and Don, there's this look in his eyes and every time you're in the same room as him, he'll always sneak looks at you. Looks of just... of something really special. He, not to sound cliché, he lights up when he sees you walk in. Unless you're upset, then worry is etched on his face until you're either in his arms or you feel better. He wants to always be touching you and I think he's reassuring himself that you're still real when he thinks this is all a dream. Don't pass him up. He's a good man and he's definitely infatuated with you and he's got a good heart."

"I won't. I plan on keeping him with me as long as I can keep him with me."

"Good," I hear his deep voice say behind me.

"You heard all of that, didn't you?"

"Yep. Come on, Sid wants to see you."

"I thought he was going to yell at me if he saw me." Don shakes his head. "Okay." I stand and Don helps me out of there. "Have a good rest of the day Lindsay!" I shout back toward her. She gives me a thumbs up and I know she heard me.

I go with Don to the morgue and Sid comes toward me with open arms.

"Emily!"

"Sid, how are you?"

"I'm good. How's you're leg?"

"Better. Don's taking care of me though."

"Good, you know if your commanding officer finds out that you two are dating, there will be concequences to pay for."

"I know. I've been thinking about switching and doing what Stella and the rest of them do, but I don't want to leave Don by himself and I sure as hell don't want him working with another female partner."

"Then work this out as long as you can and when the time comes, you can move up and become an honorary scientist."

"That sounds great Sid, I'll get to see a lot of you more often." He smiles at me. "All right, so what's the verdict on the wound? Did you find a bullet?"

"I did not. Stella did, in the wall."

"Okay so it was a bullet wound, a through and through. Then what about the knife?"

"See I've got a theory about that. What if he was stabbed first then shot? The wound is very large and the tissue surrounding the intestines was pushed out of the way, making this an even deeper wound instead of a fast act of stabbing. The bruising around the wound indicates a very close range shot as well."

"And if he was stabbed first then it would make sense that it would go all the way through. But you would have to get some diviation off the original path, wouldn't you?"

"Not necessarily. If it was a close enough shot and there wasn't a lot of kickback with the gun, then it could very well be on the same path."

"Okay, so look for a gun. Stella did someone determine a type of gun?"

"Not yet. I'll let you know when we do." I nod.

"You know, you don't report to me. I'm just a detective."

"With a masters in forensics."

"Eh, whatever. Just another title. All right, well I'm getting exhausted and I think I need to go home. Good bye Sid, it was very nice talking to you."

"You too Emily. Get better. I wanna see you off those crutches soon."

"Will do." I turn and I let Don help me to the elevator with Stella trailing behind.

"You know Emily, everyone around here adores you," Stella says. "It's nice to see, you're officially apart of the family."

"Awh, Stell. Thank you. I love everyone here. All of you are so sweet and kind but when something, or someone, pisses you off you don't sugar coat it and it's good and it's healthy to let your feelings out. You guys are one of the most functional and healthy crime labs that I've seen. And I've worked with a lot of crime labs and it's not pretty all of the time."

"We love you too kiddo."

Don takes me home and then leaves again after he knows I'm settled into bed. It's nice to have someone looking out for me and someone that cares about me. Someone that I love.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter Five**

**Emily**

Turns out Sid's theory was correct and it was the wife that did it. She was an evil, conniving little bitch. But my babe caught her and locked her up in a jail cell.

I got my cast off just a few days before Mac came back. The morning Mac came back, it was a good morning. I smile just thinking about it.

"What are you smiling about?" Don asks me over lunch.

"This morning."

"The murder on the Statue of Liberty?" He was so confused and it was too damn adorable.

"No, the little wake up call I got." Don stayed over again last night and that was when we found out that Mac was home. Dispatch was the one who called us about the Statue of Liberty case and we got a helicopter for him after he got off the plane at JFK. Don called him but let me talk to him when I was finished getting dressed.

"Mac! I'm so glad I get to talk to you. Hurry up and get to the Lady Liberty. She misses you. As well as me and the rest of your crime lab," I tell him. He was happy to hear my voice and we hung up a minute later.

But anyhow, the morning was so wonderful. Don woke me up with kisses and it got pretty heated but nothing happened yet. Then we made breakfast and today was supposed to be our day off. We were going to spend it without many clothes on and in my bed but instead after kisses and coffee and breakfast we got a call about the Statue of Liberty.

When we got there, it was a bloody mess. Not like it was a freaking mess and it was gross but it was bloody. There was blood inside the crown, down her face. It was hell. But at least the dead guard got some before she died. And Sid confirmed that it was consenual.

When I saw Mac, I immediately went to him and I hugged him.

"Mac, it's so good to see you. Six weeks is far too long." He wraps his arms around me and agrees with me.

Now it's current time and Don and I are discussing the case over lunch.

"So when you were talking to Lindsay, what did you find out?" Don asks me.

"Lindsay found condom spray."

"Excuse me, what?"

"Condom spray. She found a can that you can spray on a man's you know and it dries and turns into a condom."

"Oh."

"We should invest in that instead of buying real condoms."

"We haven't had sex yet."

"I'm preparing our ways of not getting pregnant." Don laughs a hearty laugh. It's nice to hear.

"Good. Don't need that. You just got done being off work. If you were pregnant, you'd have to take off more work. Like months of work."

"I don't have that much vacation time saved up." I chuckle. "All right, let's get on with this case. What do we need to do?"

"Damion Brock's parole officer needs to be tracked down."

"I'll have his location in under ten minutes." I get to work without missing a beat and I get an home address and a work address. Then we get Damion Brock's home address and work address. "Let's go check out the home address. Tell Stella." He nods and we leave to check out his place.

* * *

><p>"Flack, just got your message," Stella says walking towards Don and I as we stand next to the door of Damion Brock's apartment.<p>

"Well she tracked down Damion Brock's parole officer. This is the address we got for Damion. Super's getting the keys. Brock's P.O. said he spoke to him the day before yesterday, and he was happy and things were going well. Thinking about moving back to Texas when his parole was done. Didn't detect anything out of the ordinary. Sounds like he kept his nose clean, straighten himself out," Don tells Stella as she walks past us and looks down out the window. "Stella," he says trying to get her attention. "Stella!"

"Flack, I've been here before. It was a crime scene. A young woman was murdered. Marie Casimira." She pauses. "It's still unsolved." Another pause. "It's been about ten months."

"Actually it was exactly a year ago Detective Bonasera," Someone says as he walks up. Stella's confused. "Morton Brite. I was your primary suspect for a while there."

"Of course Morton, I..." She starts then stops.

"Anyway, sorry it took me so long to find the keys." He looks at me and knows that I'm new. He looks me over pretty quickly.

"Hey Morton," Don says, dragging his attention off of me and onto him.

"Yeah?"

"When's the last time you saw Damion Brock?"

"I don't know. A week ago, maybe. Quiet guy, very low maintence tenant." He unlocks the room and lets us go in. Don and a few unis are in first and then Stella and I.

"That smell like Amonia?" She asks me.

"And death." Don puts in. "Something definitely happened in this apartment."

"Did any of your tenants complain of arguements or loud voices?" I ask.

"No." A look of realization crossed his face. "Don't tell me this is happening again. Nobody is going to want to live in this building if this is happening again."

"Look Morton, thank you. But we can take it from here, okay?" I say.

"Do you have any suspects?" He asks, turning to Stella. "Do you have any idea who killed Marie? I stay in touch with her family and they ask all the time." I walk further in till his voice is just a noise in the back of my head.

I slide up next to Don. "Hey Stella," I shout, looking a bathtub with homemade equipment of some sort in it.

"This is definitely where he enbalmed Damion Brock's body. What point is this guy trying to make?"

"I have no idea," Don says. The phone outgoing message turns on after a call is made to the apartment. It's Damion.

"I think Brock was enbalmed while he was still alive," Stella says.

"He knows we're here, guys." I say aloud. "He had to of seen the light then called to trigger the answering machine. He knows who we are."

"It's time to find out where he is." While Stella starts investigating, Don makes a call to get a trace on a number, and I put on gloves because I find something and I tell Stella.

"Stell, what is it?"

"Look for yourself." And I do. It's multiple pictures of someone with their mouth taped shut, all bloody, and scared.

* * *

><p>We go back to the precinct after we come up with a dead end with the phone number and we get another phone call about nine one one. I stop listening to his voice and I get up to go to the bathroom. I sigh. This case is a weird one. First it's the Statue of Liberty, my first time actually going up to see it and it's covered in blood. Let's hope the empire state building isn't like that. Then after that the crime is connected to music and then a music hall and one victim after another and a creepy super that was looking at me weird. It's been a stressful first day back. I think I'm going to sit the next ride out unless we are going home, then I'll gladly go with.<p>

"Em, come on, Mac's found something."

"I'm just going to stay here. Once you bring whatever information you have left, I'll get involved then." He nods. "Be safe!" I yell at him. He turns and he nods, very serious because he knows that I truly, truly mean it.

* * *

><p>An hour later, if that, Don comes back with Mac in tow. They have someone handcuffed and Don's pushing him into interrogation. He lets him sit in there for a while and comes back out to see me. He takes his coat off and rolls his sleeves up on his shirt.<p>

"So he's a suspect. Want to interrogate him with me?"

"Of course." I go in there and Don lays down some photos for me. "Do you know who these men are?" I ask.

"No."

"I'm going to ask again, do you know who these two men are?"

"No."

"What about this girl?" I show him a picture of Nova Kent.

"No I don't."

"You're lying. You were at her show tonight. Have you ever been to the Statue of Liberty?"

"Fine, I was at her show. I've never been to the Statue of Liberty! And I didn't kill these guys!"

"Are you sure, sir?"

"I'm telling you for the fifteen hundredth time, I don't know who these guys are, I didn't kill them, and I've never been to the Statue of Liberty. Ever!"

"Neither have I. Till this morning when there was blood running down her face because of you!" I say. "Anthony. Come on. You went to the concert tonight to finish the job. Nakashima, Brock, and Nova can all identify you as the man who killed Marie Casimira. And you just couldn't live knowing that could happen at any moment at any day," I tell him, in his face.

"No," he whispers in my face.

Don takes over. "T-U-1-B. That's a partial license plate. Only you swap the B for a P, the 1 for an L. TULIP3. That's the flower delivery van you were driving the night you killed Marie Casimira. Brock saw it, Nakashima gave a description. Nova saw you, you saw them all. Now I'm going to go out on a limb here and say the jury's probably not gonna buy the twin tulip van defence."

"I didn't kill them." I grab the files and papers and stack them, very irritated.

"You're being charged with four murders. If you're lucky enough to escape the death penalty, that's four life sentences. Coming clean could be the difference between living and dying." I get up.

I hear Don say, "have a think on that." Then he follows me to the door.

"I only saw her. Nova." I turn around, now this is getting interesting. "I wanted to make sure she was keeping her mouth shut. I went there to scare her, not to kill her."

"Why tonight?"

"I got a phone call. Saying she was talking to the police. I want a lawyer." I walk out and Don follows me. The door shuts and I turn to him.

"I need to hit the gym before I go home I can tell you that for sure."

"Let's just have crazy, wild, hot sex tonight. It'll help the both of us." He whispers in my ear.

"As much as I would love to, something might come up in this case tonight. It's too fresh. We need something more conclusive then I'll have sex with you." I whisper back. We walk into the other room where Mac was observing our interrogation.

"What do you think?" Don asks.

"We have any physical evidence that puts him in the Statue of Liberty or Damion Brock's apartment?"

"Nope. We are still collecting trace but, you believe him?"

"I believe a year ago he killed Marie Casimira but the rest doesn't add up." The door opens and in comes Lindsey.

"Mac we just ran Colton's cell records there's an incoming call from the same phone that we found on Lee Nakashima. So unless this guy, Colton, is playing games and calling himself..."

"All right, I think our friend in there is going to stay with his lies, so I'm going to go rattle the public defender on call, you coming?" I ask. Don nods.

"This guy didn't call Nakashima or Brock," Mac says. I turn and my hands are balled up into fists.

"Are you telling me that Don got the wrong guy? That Stella pointed out the wrong guy?" I ask, getting angry. I try to supress it as much as possible. Wow I do need to have some crazy, wild, hot sex tonight.

"Emily, why would Colton coerce his victims into confessing details of a crime that identifies him as the killer then leave that information at the scene for the police to find? It doesn't make sense."

"So vigilantee and I'm gonna take a walk. I need to cool down." I walk out of there, dump the files on my desk and then go outside. I start walking down the road, not caring how I look or how cold I am.

* * *

><p>I walk straight to the crime lab and it takes me a while because I go the long way. But when I'm finished walking, I get a couple cups of coffee, one black and the other a mocha for me and I take the elevator to the 35th floor. I walk to Mac's office and I see he's sitting at his desk.<p>

"Close the doors." I do. "You've been gone for hours, Emily. You don't have your phone on you, or a jacket. You don't even have your gun on you!" He yells at me. "Don is worried out of his mind. He thought you could handle it for a half an hour tops but you've been gone for several hours. It's past midnight! You left the precinct at seven o'clock tonight. Five hours Emily. Five hours."

"Mac, I came to apologize for being so obnoxiously rude tonight," I tell him quietly. "I brought you coffee. I didn't think you'd be so mad at me." I set down both coffees and slide his over to him.

"We checked your apartment and had someone watch out for you at the precinct. We checked security cameras on the streets and then Don went to the gym because he thought you might be there. Guess what Emily, you weren't." He yells at me.

"Mac, I'm sorry okay?" I yell back, getting his attention. I know I'm not the first one to stand up to him but I definitely surprised him. "I'm sorry that I left and I don't have a jacket. I've got my spare, never leave home without it. I've got my badge as well. I'm sorry for leaving and for being gone for five hours, okay?" I start to tear up and I look away, getting that under control.

"Emily," he walks around his desk and looks at me. "I get that you were upset but you should have at least had your phone. You could have called one of us then."

"I'm sorry, Mac." He gathers me into a hug and I rest my head against his chest. "Little things like what that guy was doing tonight just get me sometimes and I need to be alone or beating up a punching bag. You get it. You knew my father. You know that he died and how and that the people who did it, lied for several hours about it then we finally got a confession when they knew that he had kids, and a girlfriend, and just a family that cared. I'm so sorry Mac."

"Sh, Emily. Now that you've explained it, I get it, it's okay, just remember to bring your phone. Now you have to talk to Don. That's going to be a little trickier. He will be glad that you're safe but he'll be pissed that you left for all of the same reasons that I was." He pulls back and holds my tear stained face. "I watched you grow up, Emily. I get it with you."

"I know Mac. He won't. He knows about dad though."

"You told him?"

"My first day here. I just feel so safe with him." I wipe under my eyes.

"He's got that feel to him, doesn't he?" He smiles and I do too. "All right. I'll call him and if he doesn't forgive you soon, I'll talk to him."

"Thank you." He gets up and dials his number on his work phone.

"Flack, she's here. She's safe. Come and pick her up with her stuff. You two can have the rest of the night off and don't come in tomorrow till about noon, kay?" He hangs up. "Thanks for the coffee." He grins at me.

I laugh. "It was a peace offering." I sit on his desk and I laugh with him. I wipe at my tear stained face and he hands me a tissue. "Thanks. You're always taking care of me."

"It's my job."

"I know."

"We got the guy. It was Morton Brite." I nod. "Here comes Don," he says.

"He had to of broken a few laws getting here." I say to Mac. He holds up a finger to his lips and I quiet down. When Don walks through the door, I'm immediately in his arms.

"I was so worried," he murmurs into my hair. He kisses my head several times and runs his hand through my hair several times. "All right so I know why you left, but why were you gone so damn long?" I look at Mac and he knows Don is upset with me.

"I took the long way to get here, and I might have circled the block a few times and got some coffee for Mac and I. For Mac and you, want a mocha?"

"No," he denies it flat out. "You don't have your jacket, or your gun, or your phone."

"Why is everyone caring about my jacket all of the sudden? It's not that cold outside."

"Don't argue with me, Em." He called me Em, I'm still on his good graces. "Why didn't you have your phone?"

"I forgot to pick it up. Rather I neglected to pick it up."

"Let's just get you home. I'd rather discuss this in the morning anyway. Noon, right Mac?" He nods.

"Have a good night, Mac." I say as Don and I leave. We get into the empty elevator and he turns to me.

"Are you okay?"

"I am." He lightly presses his lips to mine.

"Next time you decide to run out like that, call us please."

"I don't think a repeat will be happening anytime soon."

"Good. I don't like worrying about you. I want to know that you're safe." I lean into his side and I close my eyes.

"Thanks for picking me up."

"I wasn't going to have you walk outside in just what you're wearing. I care about you, a lot."

"I feel the same way. I get the way you're feeling though. I shouldn't have done that, I'm sorry Don."

"It's fine. Let's just go home." I nod.

* * *

><p>When we get to my apartment, Don closes my front door and he pushes me against it, kissing my neck. I moan and let him. He moves up to my cheek and over to my mouth. We start devoring each other's mouths as we cling to one another like it's our only way to breath. He picks me up and I wrap my legs around his waist. He carries me to my bedroom. He lays me down on my bed and we continue kissing.<p>

It goes on for a while, not really going any further than stripping off our clothes and some grinding. I've seen his scar before. It's gnarly, but I love every inch of his body.

"Don," I say when I can breath. "Move in with me." He looks up at me.

"What?"

"Move in with me. You're always here anyway and I really care about you and vice versa and I'm falling for you, and hard. Plus, my apartment is bigger."

"Okay, yeah. I can move in with you. It'll save us some money." I smile.

"I'm so happy." I kiss him with all of my love and strength. He reciprocates and tangles his tongue with mine.


	6. Chapter 6

A/N: So some stuff is going to happen at the end, just thought I should warn y'all. Btw, if you didn't get it they're going to have sex.

**Chapter Six**

**Emily**

Don and I are kissing all the way up to my, soon to be our, apartment. His coat flies off when we get into the door. He pushes me against the wall forcefully and ravages my mouth. I slip his white button up down his shoulders and he unzips my little black dress, letting it fall around my hips. My foot trails up his calf and my knee bends at his ass. I pull him closer to my body and he moves his mouth from mine and down to my neck. He's kissing my neck when I hear something. I've always been alert, but I didn't think I was right before I was going to have sex.

"Wait, wait, wait. Did you hear that?" I ask in a breathy whisper. He lifts his head, my hair following him. He looks behind himself while I'm still in his embrace. He looks at me.

"You expecting anyone?"

"Just you in my panties. But obviously if someone's here that's not going to happen." He looks at me and I want to take the incentive to just attack him right now, he looks damn fine, but he moves too quickly, bending and picking my gun up from the holster on my thigh. It's a little pistol but it's department issue and I knew I was going to be going out tonight. Might as well keep myself safe if Don and I get separated.

He sneaks around to the bedroom and I hear him yell, "NYPD. Don't move!" He runs back and grabs his shirt and coat. "This is Detective Flack. I got a 10-13 in pursuit. Suspect was last scene propelling down the wall of..." he rattles off the address as I call 911 for unis.

"Detective Emily Porter, I'm calling to report a break in at my apartment. I need you to hurry up. Suspect is leaving the scene." I say before hanging up on dispatch. I lift up my dress and I zip it back up. I slip my shoes on and I sigh, sitting down on the couch, the one that Don brought over because his is so much comfier than mine. A few minutes later cops are in my doorway and they are here for several hours. Well into the morning hours.

"You okay?" Don asks me when he walks in the door.

"I'm fine, the apartment on the other hand. Well she just got broken into. I think that person better apologize." He chuckles.

"This is high up, you'd think a break in would be pretty tough."

"No prints," Stella says. I sigh and lean my head against Don's chest. "Did you get a description of the car?"

"Yep. It was your average super stealth spy car. Whatever model comes with a blue fire getaway package." I laugh.

"Okay," Stella says chuckling too. "So did either one of you get a look at the thief?"

"Yeah. He was medium build, he had light brown hair, scar on his left cheek."

"That's very specific."

"Guy turned the lights on when he came in."

"He did? What kind of thief sneaks into an apartment in the middle of the night and turns on the lights." Don's phone starts ringing and I reach into his pants and get it for him.

"Here you are."

"Thank you." He answers and walks a few steps away.

"Maybe the thief needed a light. I would have gladly given him one in central booking." Stella chuckles.

"We all would be glad to do that."

Don comes back into the room as we laugh. "Guys, murder. Mac thinks it's our guy. You coming with?" He looks at me. I nod and we go to my room so I can get dressed. "You know, it was a pretty hectic night last night. If you want to stay at my apartment, the lease isn't up yet and I've been good and I've paid up till last months rent."

"I'm all right Don. Just come here and kiss me."

"Gladly." He wraps an arm around my waist and he gives me a proper kiss. "Was that good?"

"Very good detective."

* * *

><p>A half hour later, we meet Mac and Sheldon at the crime scene. Those two turn him over and Don nods.<p>

"Yep. That's the guy I chased last night."

"See anyone else with him?"

"There was one more guy, and I couldn't get close enough to get an ID. The car window did some weird tinting thing."

"Mac, you've got a uh thingy there," I point out. He pulls out the white piece of cardboard indicating a new shirt. "Two weeks, you still didn't get your luggage back from London?"

"Not yet."

"Mac," Sheldon says.

"What have you got?"

"Scalp. Check this out. Looks like it might belong to our vic, Mac." Mac pushes the eyelid up.

"There's a redness in the eyes. Could be some kind of chemical irritation."

"He's got something around his neck." Sheldon unzips the shirt and he's wearing a suit on underneith.

"At least he dressed for the occasion." I chuckle.

"Chief Sinclair," Mac says to Chief Sinclair, bring my attention back to reality.

"Gentlemen, Ms. Porter."

"Sir," Don says. I nod my head in acknoledgement.

"You're all over the news Detective Flack. Detective Porter as well." I look up from observing Mac and Sheldon. "NYPD detective in high speed pursuit after criminal breaks into another NYPD detective's apartment. Yeah, I'm getting calls from City Hall, borough councils..."

"Listen, Chief, I..."

"You know, the NYPD has a strict policy against high speed chases. Or did you forget that?"

"No sir."

"Next time you want to run up a sixty dollar cab fare you do it on your own time. You're lucky no one got hurt. Taylor."

"Chief Sinclair," I say getting his attention. "Is the NYPD paying for this, or are you taking it out of Detective Flack's pay? If so, here's sixty dollars. It was my apartment the man broke into and my partner was just being my partner and looking out for me." He doesn't take it, he just looks at it. "Take it Chief. You know that it's legal." He does then turns to Mac and talks to him off to the side.

"They hit Sinclair's house, and they hit you. Maybe they're targeting cops."

"Only problem with that is that it was my girlfriend's place. If they were targeting cops, why not hit mine then her's?"

"Girlfriend? How long has that been going on?"

"A few months." Don smiles down at me.

"Sheldon, you don't know?" I ask. "We are dating. Sh, Sinclair doesn't need to know. He'll either tell me to break it off or he'll switch me into the crime lab and I don't want to leave Don by himself."

"You know he can take care of himself. You just don't want another girl thinking he's on the market, right?"

"Kind of." I grin at Sheldon and Don wraps his arm around my shoulders giving me a small squeeze.

"Flack, Hawkes, Emily." We walk over. "Looks like skid marks here and here. Overlapping treads. Could be a body dump. Car stops fast, leaves the body, drives away."

"That means someone in this town," I clear my throat. "City," he corrects himself. I nod. "Has a licence to kill."

"But Don, that was very corny. Who knew you were so corny all of the time."

"I did," Mac says. "Trust me Emily, you won't find anyone cornier." I smile at Mac, a silent thank you.

* * *

><p>The next day, Don and I beat Stella to the next burglary. He interviews the witness and she flirts with him. How shallow.<p>

"So, she just ID'd our vic as the burglar. The only problem with that is, he died 24 hours ago. How you doing?"

"Same M.O. as the other burglaries. Jewelry missing, lights on, window open."

"Wait Stell, he didn't take any of my jewelry."

"Em, yeah he did. I saw a gold chain in his hand, it's got a little heart pendant with a cross on the heart."

"That's not mine."

"Then what was he doing in your apartment?" I shrug. "Our vic's partner is still in business."

"Maybe it's a double cross. Maybe the partner kills the vic, and keeps the take home for himself." Stella takes the black light she's holding and runs it over the window. "Traces of SmartWater."

"SmartWater?" Don asks.

"Yep, this loft has a high-end security system. Basically the thief, is spritzed with a luminescent dye, has it's own unique chemical code. Lasts about seven days and you can't wash it off."

"So somewhere in this town," I clear my throat once again. "city, we've got a glowing thief who may be our killer."

"Exactly."

* * *

><p>Don and I go back to the precinct and do some paper work but I get up and go to the crime lab so I can talk to Mac and Don is going with me to tell him some stuff about the vic. When we get to the crime lab we detour and look around for Mac and when we can't find him we head toward the elevator. Our moods turn up when we hear him giving someone directions.<p>

Danny walks past us and says, "oh how's that new girlfriend of yours?"

"Keep walking Messer," Don says.

"No, seriously, where'd you meet her?"

"You've never been to my apartment with Don or Lindsay have you?" Danny shakes his head. "You know I'm the girlfriend right?"

"Seattle? You're the girlfriend?"

"No, I thought you were Danny. I guess I'm just as surprised as you are." He smirks at me. "Seriously though, why do you think he let's me call him Don? He doesn't let anyone do it. Guess what, behind closed doors, he let's me call him Donnie."

"Really?" Danny says interested. "Got any more dirty little secrets?"

"For me to know and for you to, well, not. Have a good day Danny." I turn and walk to Mac and Don.

"Parents reported him missing this morning," Don finishes. Good, he took the inititive. "No idea their son had a dual career as a secret agent and a thief."

"I'll follow up, thanks." Mac looks around everywhere and at his phone and around some more.

"Mac," I start. "Are you all right?"

"You got a second?"

"Of course." Don and I walk with Mac into his office. I close the door and stand in the middle with my arms crossed, concerned.

"I've been recieving some strange calls. When I pick up, there's just silence on the other end. They've all come at 3:33 a.m."

"How long has this been going on?" I ask, my concern showing very much.

"Since I was in London. At first they were made to my hotel room phone. Then I switched hotels, they kept coming."

"Is Peyton getting these calls?" Don asks. I never even thought about her. I was just consumed in my worry for Mac.

"I don't think this has anything to do with Peyton because two weeks ago I got a call here at my office after you and Emily left when she ran off. And this morning, on my cell at the crime scene." There's a pause. I know there's something after that last statement. "This time, he left a message." He presses play on his phone.

"_Ladies and gentlemen, flight four... on final approach to JFK Airport. Please make... belts are fastened... are up..._"

"_I'm sorry, sir,_" Another flight attendant says. "_I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you to turn your cell phone off._"

"He's in New York City," I say.

"I tried to trace the number, but didn't get anything. But I was able to identify some of the sounds in the background. The loudest was a jet engine. Based on pitch, a 767. Next, I isolated the flight attendant's voice. Assuming the caller was in a fixed position when the flight attendant spoke to him, I determined that the engine's sound waves were elongating away from the rear of the engine toward the caller. He was sitting behind the engine, toward the back of the pEm. I need you to find that flight, get hold of the passenget manifest. Someone's playing a very real game. And I'm the target."

"Anything Mac. You know that," I say.

"I know Emily. Don't worry about me. Just focus on the case and when you're off work, focus on your relationship. I've got it. Let Don get the flight information."

"I can't help but worry. You're a target. Sure there have been no real threats verbally or physically but I still don't want you hurt."

"I won't get hurt."

"You better not. I'll kick your butt. I don't care if your my boss now. I still have full family permission to do so and you know it."

"Yes I do. I won't get hurt, I promise. If anything else happens, I'll let you know."

I nod. "Okay." Mac moves the couple of steps distance to me and kisses my forehead.

"Get out of here, go work on your case."

"Will do." Don and I leave his office. I'm still in a daze and Don leads me into an empty elevator cart and he turns to me. "What?"

"What was that in there? Full family permission?"

"He's my uncle, well close family friend. I kind of grew up with him in my life. He's such a sweet heart and that's one of the reasons why he and I were talking and why I came here when I wandered off. I wanted to make sure he wasn't too mad at me."

"I had no idea. So he knows about your dad?"

"I took it the hardest, and he witnessed it and heard it on the phone for several years around the anniversary of his death."

"How weird. He's always just been my boss, per se. But now I see him in this all new, totally different way. And the way he acted with you around, he really didn't want you to worry about him."

"Worrying is my job these days. I wouldn't be able to stand it if anything happened to him."

"So that's what I saw at the hospital when he came to visit you. I saw concern and worry, not just for an employee but for a niece as well." I nod. "I'm glad you two have each other to look out for."

"We are all a big family here. He's just like the big adult authority figure while you and Danny are the 'brothers' that always get into mischief and Lindsey and I are your trusty sidekicks. Sheldon is the smart one. Adam is the weird one that still likes pokemon, Stella is by Mac's side as his figurative and literal 'partner.' While Sid is the jolley grandfather with all the cool stories that only one or two people are interested in."

"Very detailed," he tells me as I slip into the car for this.

"I had a lot of time to think about this over the summer."

"Too much if you ask me. We should have been making out all summer. I would kiss you, but we need to stay professional."

"Damn. Maybe when we are in private again where no one and nothing can see us, off the clock."

"That works for me."

* * *

><p>We are almost to the precinct when I get a call telling Don and I to head to an auto dealership. We turn the car around and go in the direction that Stella said. We waltz in and it's sleek car after sleek car.<p>

"Maybach 62 S," the man says when he catches me looking at it.

"Nice car," I say.

"Yeah, it's the only V12 with infra-red relecting glass. It's got two rear LCD TV screens, and a retractable electro transparent partition screen," he says opening the door and Don moving in front of me to check it out. He looks impressed. "And if you play today, I'll install Piconet."

"Piconet?"

"Personal entertainment network," another man says, coming out and walking up to me. "Car retails for 350, but for a 50,000 thou annual membership," I zone out on what he's saying and focus in on the man behind him that was helping us. He's biting his nails. Or the hang nails on the side, either way, he's very unprofessional.

"Got an hourly membership?" Don asks showing his shield. Thank God Stella decides to show up at that moment, with her handy dandy black light.

"Just looking for a little evidence." When she's done, she turns to Don and me. "They're clean." Don must acknowlegde her somehow but my attention is focused in these people.

"I told you, the car was stolen."

"Yeah, we heard you. But if that's true Mr. Gano, why didn't you file a police report?"

"Some of my cars have immigration issues."

I'm still focused on the assistant that was trying to sell Don and I a car. "What's all that stuff?" I ask, walking over.

"Uh, it's nickel chromium. We use it to customize different parts."

"You modify all the cars that come through here?"

"Yeah," The other man must have stopped him some how.

"Sure," the other man says. "But all modifications are done aftermarket for our discerning customers who enjoy a little something extra."

"Like James Stanton," Stella butts in. I don't listen anymore, I know Don will catch it all. I let my eyes wander around. My body follows my eyes and I walk to certain parts of the shop just to get a closer look around. I don't see anything out of the ordinary, not even the assistant's eyes following my ass's every move, that wasn't even out of place.

* * *

><p>The three of us leave eventually. Don and I head back to the precinct to do what Mac asked. It took us an hour of serching and trial and error but we got the correct manifest and we narrowed it down to a section of seats. We just need Mac to fill in the blanks because there are a lot of blanks.<p>

"Mac," Don says when we get to the crime lab. "Did some checking over at JFK. Passenget manifest is in the works, but there was one 767 that landed at 6:00 a.m. but the thing is, it didn't land yesterday. It landed two weeks ago and after that it was pulled into service rotation. Flight 401. London to JFK."

"He was on the same plane I was on. That flight was packed. Couples, kids, families. I didn't even think to pay attention."

"Listen, let us have Intel do a threat assessment. Get you some protection," I say.

"That's not necessary."

"Come on, Em is freaking out over here about you. What if this guy's trying to kill you?"

"Way to freak her out even more Don."

"She thought of it before I did."

"No. He's not going to hurt me, yet."

"Yet being the operative word, Mac. Protection. Now."

He ignores my statements. "The calls, the way he's taunting me, they're methodical, deliberate actions. He has a plan. Get me that passenger manifest. I need a name."

"Okay," Don agrees.

"Mac, you're so damn stubborn. Get some protecton or I'll call some unis and I'll get them to sit on you 24/7 until this goes away. Or I'll make it go away myself. Let me know if anything else arises and I'll do the same for you. Be safe Mac." I turn quickly and walk away.

"You okay?" Don asks me in the elevator, full of people.

"Yeah. He's stubborn. I knew this was going to happen."

"I think you're the only one who actually knows Mac other than maybe Stella."

"You know that situation. He was there for the family. Didn't take me in when everything happened because he was already living over here working as a CSI. So my sister took me in and my brothers were living with her at the time. It was a good bonding experience for the four of us but I wish that I could have stayed with my dad just that much longer," I say holding up my thumb and index finger showing an inch between them. He nods and places a hand on my shoulder and squeezes once as an act of comfort.

* * *

><p>A couple hours later, Lindsay calls us with information about the blue flame that Don saw. Gilmore 171, Ethanol, Methanol, and Caramel number five. We have some unis bring in Mr. Rodrigue so Don and I can talk to him about it.<p>

"Okay, Mr. Rodrigue, tell us, who's your favorite Bond villian?" I ask sitting on the table facing him. "Dr. No? Goldfinger? Blofeld? I can go on, I own all of them."

"I don't go to the movies. I prefer live theater."

"That makes sense," Don says. "With the act you've been doing around town, stealing people's jewelry, personal information. Not to mention you and your partner interupted a very important meeting between partners. See you broke into my partner's apartment. She's not too thrilled about it. Guess who my partner is. The woman sitting on the table."

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Sure you do," I say. "I'm right here. I was the first one to speak," I throw in there just to add some sarcasm to the mix. "Now it seems every time you throw a party, somebody on your guest list gets robbed. Now place your hands in front of you." I hold the black light that Stella so kindly gave to me for questioning since she couldn't be here all the time.

"I had nothing to do with those robberies."

"You drove away from that, my, apartment, you left a trail of Gilmore 171 behind. Now I don't know why I was on the list of people to rob. I wasn't invited to any of those parties."

"We got the delivery log from the party. You signed for six cases that never showed." Don puts the delivery log infront of him.

"That alcohol was stolen." Don laughs. Very fake, I know it.

"Where were you at 2:00 a.m. after the butterfly party."

"Cleaning up."

"Not according to your own company's security report. So, what happened? You let Stanton establish his alibi, followed him after the party, then killed him."

"I wasn't at the party. Okay, I was with a tabloid reporter. I'm a spy. There I said it, all right. Not proud of it but I spy on my own parties. You can call them if you want, I'll give you the number."

"Now you can clear yourself right now of one robbery, or you can wait and we'll get a subpoena for a strip search," I tell him. He rolls his eyes and puts his hands in front of him. "Good choice." I run the now lit black light over his hands and there's nothing. Absolutely nothing."

"He's clean, no trace of SmartWater."

"Means he's not our guy." Don sits on the table and I pick up a marker for the whiteboard behind me.

"Maybe it's just his parties. Now we know that James Stanton was a guest at the butterfly party because Maude spotted him arriving at 9:00 p.m." I say as I draw a timeline on the board. "We also know that our apartment was robbed by James at midnight."

"And that James and Gano got into a fight at 1:30. Which means James robbed our spot, and then went back to the butterfly shindig."

"So, we know that the gang used the parties to establish their alibi. Now when you and Stella first interviewed Rodrigue at the conservatory, he said that he was planning the mayor's benefit, right?" Don nods. "That's tonight."

"And Stanton's partner will probably be there."

"You got a tux that I've never seen before?" He nods. "Kay, I'll meet you there babe. I'm off the clock."

* * *

><p>I go home and I get my best black dress out. It's a floor length halter that shows off my breasts fantastically. I get out black heels too and I think this outfit and the way I want to style my hair is going to be a success.<p>

I stand outside waiting for Don with a camera that Stella lended me so I can take photos and determine which people have the SmartWater on them. When he gets here, I can see in his eyes that he likes my choice of outfit, makeup, and hair. My hair is pulled back into a bundle of curls that flow down my back. He walks up to me and smiles.

"You look so beautiful."

"Thank you. I do like the tux." I fix his somewhat crooked bowtie and he sets his hand on the small of my back. We go in.

"Flack. Don Flack," Don says.

"There you are, sir." We walk in and look around. There's a lot going on. I never was one to go to a party in high school or college but I did anyway and I always left early, but I enjoyed myself. When my eye catches the lights flickering, I turn to Don.

"The lights, Don."

"Stanton's partner is here."

"Cell phones, PDAs, they're being downloaded right now." We separate to start talking to some of the guests since it's the majors benefit and I've met the mayor once of twice. "Press photo sir," I take a picture of him and his date. "Very nice sir." No SmartWater. I take photos of several other guests and I haven't found a single one with SmartWater on them.

"Anything?" I hear in my ear.

"No nothing. Not a drop of it." I take another shot of someone as Maude walks by. "Don, it's Maude, she's heading toward the roulette table." I walk toward her. "Maude?" I say. She turns quickly. "Nice jacket. Is it hotwired?" I pause for a small moment. "So, who's the designer?" She runs away and I follow. "Maude?" I rush toward her and Don starts to chase after her too.

"NYPD. Freeze," he says. I turn the other way and go to the escalade that I drove here that Mac provided me with. I rush out and I see Don.

"Don!" I yell. He gets in real fast and I speed off after Maude who is in the super cool spy car.

He takes his walkie-talkie and starts to talk into it as I turn the lights and sirens on. "This is Detective Flack, I got a 10-13 in pursuit of a murder suspect. Suspect's headed west on Park Row." He pauses and I turn the corner pretty sharply. "Employ divertive tactics." We are gaining ground on her because she has to keep backing up and she finally just goes straight. "Suspect's heading towards City Hall. Employ HLS security in five, four, three, two, one. Now!" She smashes head on into the wall and we park the escalade and get out. She exits as well and she's not injured at all except for a broken nose. "You're under arrest. Gimmie your hands," Don says, as he cuffs her.

"You'd never make it as a Bond Girl driving like that," I tell her. We take her in for questioning and Danny and Lindsay are excited because they get the car and have to work overtime. They've wanted the car ever since Don saw it outside of our apartment.

"I didn't kill James," she says.

"You were the brains behind the robberies, weren't you?" Don says. I watch from the other room so he's in on this alone. I'm cold and I have his jacket on over my shoulders. That wouldn't look good in interrogation so I'm in the other room, confident that Don has it handled. I have one of the crime labs iPads and I look at the information on the case.

"You don't have anything on me."

"Actually we do. You took a shower in a chemical that proves you were at the last robbery. Come on Maude. You dumped his body and took the car. Now how does this work? You get your partner to fund all your fancy gadgets then you knock him off before the big take home?"

"No."

I hear Mac walk in behind me. "Maude's involvement with the second robbery and the fact that she was driving the car links her to Stanton," I tell him.

"Still don't have anything that directly connects her to his murder." I hand the iPad over to Mac. "The air bag didn't deploy when the car crashed."

"James Stanton's COD was crush asphyxiation."

"Maybe Maude customized the air bag."

"Danny found brake fluid on the street after Maude robbed the loft. In order for that much brake fluid to leak from the car, you'd have to tamper with the brake caliper."

"The whodywhatsit?"

"You should have paid attention when your dad tried teaching you about this stuff. It holds the brake fluid in."

"Oh," I chuckle. "Okay. So she wouldn't sabotage the same car she's driving. So if she didn't do it, who did?"

Mac contemplates it. "A 'Q' wannabe. Always behind the scenes, never got to use his own inventions."

"There's a third gang member who wanted both Stanton and Maude killed."

"We need the science to prove it." He hands the iPad back to me.

"And I think I know who it is."

We have unis bring in the kid from the car dealership in the morning. Stella and I were thinking on the same brain wave and we told each other and we knew it from the get go that something was off about him.

"You know, Capsicum is used to stop nail biting," she tells me.

"Really? I didn't know that. This is why I wouldn't be good as a CSI."

"Who wants you to be a CSI?"

"Mac, and everyone else if it gets out that Don and I are together. I should probably transfer then tell everyone."

"I would love it if you transfered because you're a great person and you know a lot but if you don't want to, then don't. You always have a choice, Emily."

"Thank you, Stella." I sigh. "I want to transfer so I can get to know you guys in the lab better because from what I've seen you all are so wonderful, but I don't want Don getting another partner that is a girl. A male, sure go for it. A female, that girl better watch out."

"I get it. You keep saying our apartment though, did you and Flack move in together?"

"We are in the process. You saw his couch over there a couple of days ago, right?" She nods. "My bed is bigger so we are giving his bed to his younger sister, Sam, same with my couch and he's bringing the rest of his things over on our days off. It's hard to find the time because so many people like to murder and lie out there that we can't seem to find a day off."

"Ask for one off."

"With our boss? The one that isn't Mac? Right. Like he'd give the both of us the day off at the same time. One of us needs to be working unless it's already scheduled ahead of time by him and we have a day off together. It's rare, let me tell you. Haven't you noticed that when I have a day off and Don is working I'm usually with you or Lindsay?"

"I have noticed that. I'm glad that the three of us are friends. It makes things so much easier."

"The three of us should go out, unless she has her hands full with Danny."

"We all have our hands full with Danny." I laugh at her joke and I go into the room to observe her.

"Nasty habit. Cayenne pepper isn't working for you? Seems you have a nastier habit."

"What are you talking about?"

"Cayenne pepper you use to stop your nail biting, you left it and your prints all over the brake caliper and the airbag."

"That doesn't mean anything."

"You know what's funny about all of this, Mr. Royd? Is that without you, this gang would have never existed. But James and Maude didn't get jacket you designed was awesome, but what you did to that car was genius. Auto-tint windows, memory alloy? My favorite was how you rigged the exhaust pipes to handle the alcohol." Mr. Royd is slightly smirking. "How'd you keep them from corroding?"

"I uh, I lined the pipes with a nickel chromium alloy." Busted. "That's pretty cool, huh?"

"Yeah, the night of the butterfly party, after Maude gives James his instructions, he picks you up. You were the lookout. The guy I saw in the car after my partner's place was robbed. That was you."

"I, I don't know what you're talking about."

"Oh sure you do Mr. Royd. You were with James when he drove back to the party to reestablish his alibi. So you decided you didn't need either one of them. And when James finally drove you home that night, you put your plan into action. You rigged the airbag to kill James. And then you dumped his body on Bond street. Then, you sabotaged the brakes to kill Maude," Stella says. He looks scared.

"They just used me. What was I supposed to do? Just let them have all the fun? Just once, I wanted to wear the suit. Get the girl. They were never going to let that happen." Confession done. Don is going to get the girl tonight. I'm proud.

* * *

><p>When we get back to my place tonight Don and I are right back where we started with the case we just closed. He's in his white wife-beater and I'm half naked while he's kissing my neck.<p>

"Donnie, lets go to the bedroom."

"Gladly." He picks me up and I cross my ankles at his ass. He drops me on to my bed and I scoot up to the pillows. He crawls up after me. Don is on top of me, pinning me to the bed, kissing me, and I love it.

I wrap my arms around his shoulders and my legs around his hips. I pull his hips down toward me and I smile. Our clothes don't come off for a few more minutes and when they do, Don is nervous.

"What's wrong?" I ask. He's quiet. "I want you to feel comfortable, if you don't we don't have to do anything. I don't want you to feel forced to tell me anything." He nods and proceeds to tell me anyway.

"Last year, Mac and I were caught in a bomb. I almost died but Mac saved me by tying his shoelace around a large vein that was exposed. I was in the hospital and in physical therapy for months. It wasn't pretty." I let him explain what it was like and how he was affected by it patiently.

"And now there's a scar there. I remember Mac telling me about that. So that's where I heard your name. Don, your scars make you, you. You have imperfections and faults and I'll still care about you and stick with you." He smiles.

"Thank you."

"You're special to me, I would never judge you." He cups my jaw and presses his lips to mine.

We become excited to start this experience that we haven't done yet. It's been months since I've had sex and I'm just dying to get him inside of me. I trail my kisses down his collarbone and down his chest. I get to the left side of his body and I see his scar. It's large and I kiss it's outline then the center.

Don pulls me back up to his face and in his eyes is consistent adoration. My heart speeds up and my breathing becomes shallow. I'm loving the look he's giving me.

He turns us so he's on top again. Don lines himself up and pushes into me slowly, letting my body get used to him. When he's completely in, to the point where my little buddle of nerves is touching right above his manhood, I sigh and flex my hips and squeeze around him. He groans and his head falls to my neck. He buries his face in my neck and uses his hips to pull out then push back in quickly.

Sweat was building on his forehead and in the indents of his collarbone. I watched up sink into me everytime he thrust into me. The sight was all the more intensifying.

Everything was splendid when we both came. I knew he felt the cum roll out of me. It just made him all the more ready to go again. He and I built up a rhythm of thrust after thrust, touch after touch, kiss after kiss. It was definietly one of those hot, sweat-filled, sex nights and I loved every single second of it and him.


	7. Chapter 7

A/N: Review people, please! I want to get feed back on how I am doing.

**Chapter Seven**

**Emily**

I wake up to kisses and fingers and warmth between my legs. I pant and I ball my hands up into fists, taking the sheets with me. I move my hips and grind against his fingers and mouth. I finally let my orgasm take over and I cry out in pleasure.

"Oh my God," I pant out. "Greatest way to wake up, ever."

"Oh I bet." Don crawls and kisses his way up my body. "I really love your tattoos." He tells me. I've got a tribute to my dad and some extra ones for fun. I've got a small Space Needle on my hip.

His lips connect with mine and we tumble in the sheets one more time before we actually get up and we take a shower, and have more sex. It's a great morning so far.

* * *

><p>When we get to the precinct, we walk in together eating a muffin and drinking coffee. It looks like as partners we bumped into each other and got a muffin while we got our own coffees. Instead of getting breakfast somewhere or eating at home because we are running late type thing. Nothing of the sort. It's a large blueberry muffin, our favorite, and he's holding it while I pick off little bits of it. We sit our desks and finish the muffin together. Him more than I because Mac walks in and pulls me away from Don who is in the middle of making a phone call.<p>

"How's my favorite person right now?"

"You're in a good mood."

"Well somethings happened last night and I woke up with a smile on my face."

"That almost never happens." He points out. I nod. "Well, I apologize in advance. I have to wreck your good mood."

"What's up Mac?"

"I got a suitcase last night in my office. Except it wasn't mine. They never found my suitcase. It was someone else's."

"The 3:33 caller." He looks at me. "What? Don came up with it, not me." He grins.

"Anyway. I opened it and there was a shirt with lots of blood."

"Did you test the blood?"

"No. I was wondering if..." He never finished his sentence before someone clad in only their underwear, comes barrelling in through the doors of the precinct. We immediately grab our guns and aim.

"I killed him!" he says. I stalk forward but Mac grabs my arm and pulls me back.

"Get back! Get back!" Mac yells to everyone. The man falls to the ground and starts to seizure.

"I've killed him."

"Killed who?"

"Kevin. Kevin Murrary. Chelsea dorms. 9:45. Do you hear me?"

"It's 10:15," Don says.

"Was that this morning?" Mac asks. He shakes his head. "Last night?" The man becomes angry.

"No," he grabs Mac's jacket and pulls him to himself and whispers in his ear, then drops dead. I holster my weapon and sigh.

"Mac, you good?" I ask. He nods. "Don, get some uniforms and check out Kevin Murrary. See if he's at his apartment and drag him down here. I'm gonna stay with Mac." He nods and gets a small team to leave. "Be safe," I tell him.

"You too." I get called about fifteen minutes later to work on a case in Kraus Deli. I start asking around about what happened.

"It was a typical nighttime crowd. Dumb kids, blue-hairs, and blowhards. Then things started to get really weird. She started to you know. Personally, I've given much better performances. She was clearly fakin' it."

I talk to another person and they say the same thing with a slight comment like, "take it from a man who knows, sweetheart, that show was all real" and "that was the most disgusting young woman I have ever seen come in" and "she came in here for a cup of coffee, then some guy joins her, I bring back the pickles and the next thing you know."

"Tell me more about the guy." I say to the young man I'm talking to.

"Some jock, probably around her age. Wearin' a Chelsea shirt and had a T-Rex tattoo on his arm. Can I get your phone number?"

"Why? You in trouble?" I am immediately concerned.

"No, but I'd like to be." I roll my eyes and walk past him.

"So did you give him your number?" Danny asks picking up evidence.

"The bottom line is, the busboy and every other witness that I spoke to said the two of them never made any physical contact. And a few folks told me that she seemed upset before the fireworks started."

"Anything else about the guy?" Stella asks.

"Whoever he was, he didn't stick around to cuddle."

"Maybe this time Harry killed Sally."

* * *

><p>A couple hours later I head to the crime lab looking for Stella and when I find her, she's opening something.<p>

"Whatcha got there?" I ask.

"A parachute."

"Excuse me? A parachute? I don't think that has anything to do with the case."

"It doesn't. A guy sent me this." She hands me the card and it's a skydiving tourist thing to do here and I turn it over and it says, '_Could you fall for a guy like me? Drew._'

"Cheesiest pick up line ever." I put it down. She starts to pull it out.

"There's safer ways to beat the traffic," Mac says behind me.

"Oh traffic I can handle. Men are another story."

"What is it?"

"Gift certificate for a skydiving lesson. Met this guy at an antique store and then bumped into him again at a coffee stand and suddenly he wants to hold hands at 10,000 feet. So he sent me a parachute."

"Original... and daring."

"And cheesy. On the back, Mac, it says 'could you fall for a guy like me?' I mean who is that cheesy?"

"Don," they both say.

I blush. "Not fair guys. We are bagging on Stella's new guy, not mine." They smile.

"Besides it's a bit too aggressive for me." Mac smiles. "What?"

"You were smiling when you opened the box."

"Mac, my last boyfriend tried to kill me and I shot him." I didn't know that. She gives him a face that says, so take that back, I was not smiling. Mac looks down and smiles still.

"Well maybe this guy is a little different. Why don't you just run him through NYSPIN?"

"Actually I already did. There are three Drew Bedfords in the city. One is 96 and lives in a rest home. The other is in juvie for painting boobs on a billboard." I laugh. "and my original and daring, oh and cheesy, is, uh, squeaky-clean."

"You and I are alike in a lot of ways. We both do everything we can to avoid this sort of thing. But sometimes you just got to take the plunge."

"So you're telling me to fall for all this?"

"Stella, Peyton pursude me. I never thought I'd enjoy another relationship either. Forget about all the risks of romance and... enjoy the rewards. Emily is the same way." Mac rubs my shoulder then walks away.

"It's true Stell. I am. But this one with Don. It just feels good and right and while it's frightening I know that if I don't do anything then I could miss out on the best relationship I've ever had. That's how I go into some relationships that feel good. I'm still cautious but I've learned that if I trust them with my life, I should trust them with my heart."

"Mm-mmm." She shakes her head. I laugh and tell her what I need to tell her. "Wanna come with me down to autopsy in a half hour? Get dinner before hand?"

"Sure."

"Let's invite Lindsay as well. It'll be a girl's dinner." The three of us go to a fast food restaurant for dinner because two of us have to be in autopsy soon. We talk about life and Stella's new present from her new man. It's fun. Danny and Lindsay are good and same with me and Don.

* * *

><p>When we get to the morgue, I smile. Sid is down here and I haven't seen him in a long while.<p>

"Sid?" I ask. "We keeping you up?"

"No, my brain just needs a little oxygen."

"Looks like it needs more than that," Danny says. Sid chuckles.

"Found a few interesting marks on your unknown coed." He pulls up the blanket and turns on a black light. "See that there?"

"Sad face?" Stella says.

"One of twenty-seven. Drawn with a permanent marker then washed away save for the residual pigmentation."

"Maybe some sort of compulsive behavior?" Danny asks.

"Uh, I don't know. Take a look." We lift up her body and he shines the light on her back as well. "Now, see that?" There's more on her back.

"There's no way she could have done all this to herself." Stella says.

"Unless she was capable of drawing on her own buttocks."

"I knew a kid back in the Bronx who could blow out a candle..." Danny starts and Stell interupts.

"What about stomach content?"

"Black coffee and pickles, part of your nutritious breakfast."

"So far we're not hearing COD."

"I see you're not much for foreplay. Very well. In this case, the cause of death was aortic aneurysm due to extreme sexual excitement. The victim's pupils would have dialated. Her breathing accelerated. And with elevated natural levels of endorphins and oxytocin her increased heart rate triggered vasocongestion and pudendal reflex."

"Death by orgasm?" I say.

"Yes and no. Tox found something else in her blood that shouldn't have been there. Methylenedioxyphenylacetone. It's an analog to Ecstasy and methamphetamine but I haven't seen anything like it in any of our databases."

"Some kind of designer drug." Danny says.

"That's what I thought at first, but this was pure. Not what you'd expect from a homemade cocktail. And it was administored at a very high dosage which would have easily led to acute neuromuscular myotonia."

"How in the world did this poor girl get her hands on a drug that turns pleasure into pain?" I pull out my phone and I scroll to Don's contact information.

'_My vic's COD: Death by orgasm. Who knew that that was a thing. Can I get that?_'

Don responds back with, '_Mine thinks he's from the future. A time traveler._'

'_Lucky!_'

'_This guy is a wackadoodle. If I could go back in time though, I would probably go back to my folks' place in Queens for one of my ma's Corned Beef Wednesdays. I would endure every one of my brother's insults at the table for one more taste of that paradise._'

'_Corned Beef = best meat ever. It's SO good. I thought you only had a sister. Find out something new every day._'

'_I've got a brother and a sister, just like you._'

'_We have something else in common! Ha ha, so what do you want to do when you get off work? I'm leaving the crime lab about to head home for the night._'

'_Lets go back to my place and try to pack a little more then get distracted with... more important things. (;_'

'_Sounds like a plan(;_'

And that's just what Don and I did. We packed a few things, loaded some clothes into the back of his car and we had more sex, which I'm surprised about because we are both tired from our long day at work. But we still made time and an effort to do the thing we have taken a liking to the most.

* * *

><p>In the morning, it's seven o'clock and I'm laying on my back in Don's bed while his arm is under my pillow and his other arm over my waist and his head is on my pillow, his face right next to mine. Today was supposed to be a day off for me but I scored a case yesterday. I sigh and start playing with Don's fingers, moving them up and down, looking at how big his hands are, memorizing every line, indent, and scar, while he's still sleeping. At least, I thought he was.<p>

He kisses my cheek and I grin. He moves his hand out of my grasp and places it on my waist and he pulls me closer, dipping his head and pressing kisses to my neck.

"You're so sweet to me," I say.

"You're the kind of person that needs some sort of reciprocated feeling from someone other than a member of your family and I am signing up to be just that." I turn my head and he looks at me. I recognize the look in his eyes and it's the same one that Lindsey and I were talking about a few weeks ago.

"Donnie." I rest my hand on his cheek and pull him into a kiss. "You're the absolute best." He groans.

"I wish we didn't have to go to work today."

"Me too. I wish we were back in school because then we could just skip school and no one would care."

"Did you skip school?"

"Actually I hated skipping school. I did, but I was miserable. Did you?"

"And face the wrath of my ma? No, never." I chuckle. "Have you ever skipped work?"

"Never. I couldn't do that. I may have been a truent in school but work pays the bills. I never sleep in my apartments, I don't know why I even have one. I never have a day off anymore."

"I feel the same. I've never skipped out on work or called in sick but I've been sent home. So there is one reason to have a place."

"Parents. I would have lived with my dad if he was alive and I was a cop. Hell if I was what I wanted to do, I'd live with my dad because he couldn't bother to learn how to take care of the house. Great cook, terrible at clean up. I'm sure if he wasn't a cop, he would have done better."

"Aren't all cops the same way? They come home, take a shower, dig through the small pile of clean clothes to get dressed, then eat and head to work again. Maybe sleep for a few hours if your lucky in between shifts. We are messy people when it comes to our homes."

"I can agree with that." I sigh and reach for my phone on the nightstand. "When do we have to be in?"

"I don't know about you but I have to be in at nine."

"It's seven fifteen. Plenty of time." I turn us over and I kiss Don.

"You know, we shouldn't take showers together. I'm running late," he says as I tie his tie for him.

"You're fine. You've still got a few seconds to kiss me before you have to leave. I don't come in for another hour and a half." I hold his tie and I pull him toward me. He rests his hands on my hips and his lips are tender against mine.

"Bye. I'll see you in a few hours." I kiss him once more and he leaves his apartment.

* * *

><p>The few hours that I have to get ready for work are slow but I'm glad because I can lounge and I can get a coffee and some lunch for Don and I to share. I get us sub sandwiches and head into work. Don is sitting at his desk talking to Danny when I walk in and when he looks up he smiles at me.<p>

"I got sandwiches," I say holding up the bag.

"Thanks Seattle," Danny says reaching out.

"Very funny Messer. Just because you're hungry doesn't mean you can take Don's lunch."

"Flack's lunch? I was reaching for yours." I glare at him and he laughs. We've become closer since the whole hostage thing. It's nice to have a friend in Danny. "So anyhow, I just came here to say what I needed to say. I'll be at the lab if anyone needs me." He leaves and I hand Don his sandwich.

"Thank you Em," Don says. "So what did you do in your few hours off?"

"Went home, curled my hair as you can tell, got some breakfast, actually had time to get a cup of coffee and get lunch. Very eventful."

"I like it curled."

"Thank you. It's gonna stay straight for the most part because I just don't have the extra forty five minutes in the morning or night to do it. So straight it is because it takes less than ten minutes."

"I like your hair straight as well." I grin and take a bite of my sandwich. "So my vic, the crazy one, his assistant just turned up dead after I came into work today. Oh and Stella came by and asked that you get her a court order of all the patient files for your case soon."

"Kay. I'm on it." In a couple of hours I bust that thing out and call Stella. "Court order is finished."

"Good. Danny and I will run by and get it." She comes and we check it over while Don is doing something related to his case. It's weird working different cases. "Hey, can you guys go check out Brent Vandeman? He works in the archeological department and Danny said something about a Mastodon. I need to go back up to the lab and then talk to some more students once I finish up there." I nod.

* * *

><p>Danny and I leave in my car to talk to a couple students and find someone who knows what went on with this girl and her death by orgasm ordeal.<p>

"So how are you and Flack?"

"Don and I are just fine."

"Heard he's movin' in."

"From who?" I ask Danny.

"Stella. She won't tell me much else. Says I have to get it from you and or Flack."

"Let's go out to dinner sometime," I say changing the subject. Don is always telling me about Sullivan's that cop bar you guys like. Me, Don, you, and Lindsay. It'll be fun."

"Yeah, lets do that."

"We can catch the rangers game and hopefully the rangers will win, I know how much Don likes them."

"What are you guys going to do for Christmas? It's right around the corner."

"What about Thanksgiving? That's just a month away."

"Halloween is in a week." I'm shocked.

"Is it really the end of October already?"

"What, too caught up in Flack cloud?"

"Pft, no." I try, and fail, to play it off. "We've just been busy working and moving."

"Have you guys done it?"

"None of your business."

"Flack's my best friend, gotta ask."

"Ask him. I won't tell you." I pull up to the building and we get out and walk inside. We see someone dusting off a tusk on a skeleton.

"You like to play dirty, huh, kid?"

"Brent Vandeman?" I show him my badge and he sees it and runs. Danny runs as do I. He tackles Brent and cuffs him.

"They didn't teach you not to run in a museum?"

"The only person in the city currently working on Mastodons."

"Yeah, well, that's when he's not, you know, leaving girls for dead in a deli."

"Look I'm sorry." Thinks he can just apologize his way out of this. Not going to happen kid. "And if I tell you the truth I'm gonna be screwed out of a scholarship and..."

"They'll screw you out of a lot worse than that on a cell block." I tell him. "You better tell us everything you know about that girl."

"Her name is Robin Graham, and I only followed her to the deli cause I didn't want her to be pissed off. But you know... I... then she started just..."

"Yeah, right, right, right, we know, we know. Why don't you stay focused on why she was upset in the first place," Danny suggests, well orders.

"Come on man, we do it every year. It was just a stupid raffle, but, you know, hundred bucks to play and my name got drawn. But I got her all by myself, you know. Then when I made my move, sh-sh-she freaked. So I followed her to the deli. I mean, I tried talking to her, I did, you know, but then, you know, she just started wigging in front of everybody. I don't know, I-I just bailed."

"You know, for a smart kid, you're a real bonehead. Let's go."

* * *

><p>Danny ends up leaving with Stella to talk to the control patients and then arresting a sorority girl for killing our girl. Then Mac makes an arrest the same day. I'm glad because as soon as Don and I are done with our reports, we get to go home and unpack and eat dinner.<p>

"You amost done?" Don asks.

"Just a few more words," I say as I type the rest of it. "And... done! Let's go." Don and I head out of the precinct and toward home. "So I was thinking that we should have dinner with Danny and Lindsey some point soon."

"Sounds like a great idea."

"I was thinking Sullivan's because I know how much you like it and tomorrow the rangers are playing..."

"You'd sit through a Rangers game for me?"

"Yes. I'd get tickets for you, as long as you take Danny unless for some reason I want to learn hockey when I buy them." He smiles. His smile is so bright.

"Let's unpack and call Danny and Lindsay," Don says. I grin and we do exactly that.

* * *

><p>When we finally lay down, we are exhausted but Danny and Lindsay agreed to dinner tomorrow.<p>

"I just want to sleep." I say.

"Me too." I turn and lay my head down in the crook of Don's neck. His arm wraps around my shoulders.

"Let's get undress."

"Hmmm. No. I want to sleep, let's sleep." He turns toward me and keeps me next to him. He's out like a light bulb as soon as his eyes close.

"Good night Donnie."

"You sound like my ma," he murmurs.

"Night babe. That better?"

"Much. Night Em."


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter Eight**

**Emily**

"Hey Em, we got a 187. Suspect is on the move," Don tells me as he walks past the our desks.

"Uh, okay! On my way." I get up. "And by the way, I'm driving!"

We get into an NYPD squad car and we race to the scene. Don helps me out by handing me a Kevlar vest and I strap it on. We walk into the apartment building and go up to her place and there is blood all over the door of this woman's apartment. I draw my weapon along with Don.

He bangs on the door. "Fern Lazlow! NYPD!" I stand behind Don and he nods and the uniform busts the door down. I've only done that once for real and it was pretty awesome.

Don walks in first and I peak around his broad shoulders and there is a naked woman, probably Fern Lazlow, standing at her bathroom sink. I go up to her because I don't want Don seeing that.

"Is he really dead?" She asks looking at me in the mirror. "It's not a dream?"

"Somebody get her some clothes. Please." I take her hand. "You're under arrest. You have the right to remain silent, anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law." I recite the rest of the Miranda Rights that I know by heart as we get the clothes. I only cuff one of her hands for now so she can get dressed but once her shirt is on, the other one is slapped on. I walk her out of the building with a uni on my other side.

I see her face in the squad car's window and it looks like she's smiling as I put her in the running car. Don and I look at each other.

"Was it just me or was she smiling when she looked across the street at Stella and Mac while they were working?"

"I didn't see anything."

"Well she's one sick son of a bitch if she was."

"Agreed. Now let's get some information for Mac and Stella." We start walking and when we are out of ear shot, Don says, "so you look pretty good all strapped in like that."

"Oh really? And later will you explain to me why this is so alluring to you detective?"

"But of course." I sneak in a quick grin and then turn back to everyone else and I have the cold, stoic look on my face again. Don and I ask the uniforms about the vic and they tell us a great deal.

"We got a name," I tell Mac and Stella."Your vic is Mitchell Bentley III. Son of everybody's favorite billionaire, Mitchell Bentley Jr. He hit on me once. The third, not junior. They should have stopped at two."

"So this is the guy that was just aquitted of attempted murder and rape in Central Park?"

"One and the same."

"And get this, the vic in that case, Fern Lazlow, an ER nurse over at Queen of Mercy was seen running from this crime scene to her apartment. We got her in custody. When we picked her up, we found traces of blood, which I'm assuming is Bentley's, cause she didn't have a scratch on her," Don tells them as they listen patiently while collecting evidence.

"Looks like a good clean case of revenge."

"She certainly made her point," Stella says.

Don and I go back to the precinct to talk to Fern Lazlow, our prime suspect. I sit at my desk for a second as does Don.

"So, you want to interrogate or do you want to stand behind the scenes?" Don asks.

"I'll let you interrogate. I don't particularly want to get mad and slap her because knowing how short my fuse is, I would."

"Kay. Well Mac might be in there with you. He's a sneaky one."

"Trust me, he's the one that taught my dad how to take the tooth from under my pillow and put the money under there. And being a cop's daughter, I've got the right instincts and I never knew it when it happened."

"That's good." I nod. "Okay, let's go interrogate."

"You do good, I'll buy both of our dinners tonight while we are out with Danny and Lindsey."

"You don't have to."

"Then I'll just reward you with something else that I know you'll enjoy." I grin and wink as I walk into the interrogation room and I observe Don in the corner for a while and it's interesting but not much happens till right about the end.

"A coincidence? Bumping into a dead body outside your apartment, who, it turns out, happens to be the same man recently acquitted of raping you?"

"I was coming home from the hospital. I cut through the park."

"You ran right past your door man covered in blood. Didn't think to ask him to call nine-one-one? And you made no attempt to contact the poice on your own." She shrugs.

"I told you, I was upset."

"But not so upset that you couldn't dispose of your bloody clothes or take the time to try to wash away any evidence, come on."

"I just wanted him off of me." That I get but it's not going to hold up in a jury if she's innocent, which I doubt she is. "All right. I didn't care about anything else."

"Not buying a word of it."

"I know how this looks. I have every reason in the world to want to kill him, but as much as I would have loved to..." She chuckles. "... I didn't kill Mitchell Bentley." Don rolls his eyes but sits down. He talks to the suspect some more but doesn't get anything else other than she didn't kill him and she just wanted him off of her.

Mac walks in and Don gets up to come stand next to me. Mac puts some pictures and evidence on the table and starts explaining them.

"Those are your prints. That's from the coat you tried to dispose of. It was found at the crime scene."

"Must of got caught in the fence when I fell." Fell? Who the hell said anything about falling?

"How do you explain your prints on Bentley's neck, Ms. Lazlow?"

"I checked his pulse there." Bull.

"You said you checked his wrist," Don speaks up. Good for him.

"Maybe I checked both." Dumbass. I hate people like this.

"Must have, maybe, I don't know. Prosecutor's going to eat you alive," he tells her as a truth and a tactic to scare her.

"The prosecutor?" Looks like it didn't work. She laughs. "Is this the same incompentent ass that let that piece of garbage walk in the first place? We're running in circles here, gentlemen. That's all I'm telling you until I see my attorney." She quiets down and it's a losing battle from there if we try to get her to talk. Then the laywer won't let her talk if we try again. Wonderful. A uni comes in and takes her out of the room.

"She certainly has all the answers," Don mutters.

"When you've taken the time to plan a murder it's very possible you've already considered all the questions," Mac says as a sort of small lecture. Great, thanks Mac.

* * *

><p>A couple of hours and a coffee trip run later Stella calls and tells Don and I that we need to go to a spanish grill and find some evidence about the case. We do and we show the manager pictures of blonde women and on of them is our suspect.<p>

"They are pretty, but I don't recognize any faces," he tells me handing it back to me. Don digs in his coat for the picture of Mitchell Bentley.

"Does this guy ring a bell?" He walks past Don and I and takes the photo.

"Awh yeah, everybody knows that bum from the news. Hard to believe he'd come back here."

"Was he with anyone?" I ask.

"This smokin' hot brunette in a red dress. She made the reservation under Florence Nightingale. I'm thinking fake name." I resist the urge to roll my eyes at how obvious it was and how stupid he is.

"Real sharp, Larry."

"How'd they pay?" I ask.

"Cash. She picked up the tab. She left a nice tip considering she was so ticked off."

"Ticked off at him?" I ask.

"No, they got along fine, but she lost something like a contact. Never found it, didn't want any help, refused to leave a business card in case it turned up."

"Show me where they sat," Don says. We follow him.

"They sat right there," he tells us pointing at on of the unoccupied tables.

"Thank you," I tell him. We start tipping chairs and looking at the bottoms.

Don tips one over and it's his lucky day. "There's something stuck on the bottom of this chair."

"Yeah?" I put the chair I was looking at back up and I walk over to his side of the table. "Huh. It's pretty beat up." Don makes a makeshift envelope and put the evidence in it. "Hard to tell what it his."

"Well I will leave that up to those scientists."

"I'll get it to them, stat."

"That's medical," Don tells me with a sight grin on his face.

"Still science," I say, flashing him a smile. We take the unknown to the crime lab. We go back to the precinct and get down to business with the nitty gritty.

"So, Bentley raped her and two other people?" I ask.

"Yeah and she just so happens to run into him outside of her apartment after he's dead, though we think she killed him." I nod.

"She said she fell but I don't think she did because I didn't see any scratches on her when we picked her up. She was stark naked and the only blood she had on her was Bentley's. Stella tested it and all that jazz." Don smirks briefly. "What?"

"You always have these weird little phrases that you always say."

"I think it's a me thing. My dad used to say stuff like that and I would catch on because, well, I grew up with him and I still use them. It's something that keeps me close with him still. That and having his house in my name now."

"You own a house?"

"I guess I do. It never really came as a big shock that I would get the house and all of his posessions when he died. All of it is in a big storage locker and I rent the house out. I have one of my siblings check on it still."

"Whatever happened to your mom?" Don asks. I am immediately quiet. I look everywhere but at him. I do rest my chin on my hand and look away. He places his hand next to my outstretched one and touches it. "Hey, I'm sorry for asking. I didn't know this was a tough subject. If you want to talk Em." He just leaves it at that because Mac walks in.

"What's wrong?" he asks almost immediately. We both know Don or I will crack but not right now.

"What's up?" Don asks.

"Evidence, we are taking a drive then you're off. Emily, you're off now."

"Thank God," I say. I get up and I walk away with my jacket and my phone. My mother has always been a touchy subject. She didn't die but it was more than the typical divorce. My life has always been shaky with her. But it's really not something I want to think about.

* * *

><p>I head into the bedroom when I get home and I strip off my clothes till I'm just in my bra and underwear. I crawl into bed as I get a call from Danny.<p>

"Hey Danny. What's up? Got a date with some evidence tonight instead?"

"Yeah something like that. I just wanted to reschedule for after the cases are finished."

"Of course. That's perfect. Don and I will just stay in and watch the rangers game. Speaking of which I should probably get the TV on that channel. Anyway, how's the case you're working on?"

"Difficult but processable."

"Good. I'll let you go now. Have a good night."

"You too Seattle."

I lay my head down and I cover myself up. It's dark in the apartment but the lights from the city illuminate the walls and I look at all the pictures. Some of me and my sister, then my brothers, and my dad. On my nightstand there's a single photo of my dad on it when he was a teenager and it's one of my favorite pictures. I've got one of him and I when I was a teenager, a couple years before he died, and one of those photobooth pictures of me as a toddler with my dad. I wasn't smiling but I didn't know how the machine worked and I was confused. I still laugh every time I see it.

* * *

><p>About an hour later, I'm listening to the Rangers game on TV as I'm making a pizza casserole. It's noodles and cheese and pepperoni and olives. From what I've heard, Don isn't allergic to any food items. He is allergic to cats. I remember him telling me that when I asked.<p>

I hear a key in a lock soon and I smile. As soon as Don walks through the door, my arms are around his waist and my face in his chest. His arms wrap around me and I sigh, content.

"Hi," I say into his jacket.

"Hey." He bends and kisses the top of my head. "What smells so good?"

"Dinner." I look at him and he's confused. "Danny and I both thought it would be good to postpone dinner till we are finished with both of our cases."

"Ah. Gotcha." I stand on my tiptoes and kiss the air as a way of saying 'kiss me'. He bends and presses his lips to mine.

"Thank you." I step back and I wander back into the kitchen. I can feel Don's eyes linger on my body. I'm wearing shorts and one of his long sleeve shirts tucked into the waist band of my shorts. I'm at the counter taking the top off a bottle of beer for Don when his arms wrap around my waist and I feel his hips against my bottom along with his arousal. I hand him his beer.

"You restarted the game, got me a beer, made dinner, and dressed like this? How did I get so lucky?"

"No clue babe. I think it was the smile that finally got me. But maybe it was the baby blue eyes." I turn in his embrace and his arousal presses against my stomach. "Definitely the baby blues," I say as his face gets closer to mine. He smiles and quickly dips and presses his lips to mine. It's not a simple kiss either. Don begs for entrance to my mouth and I happily give it to him. He and I are at it with each other.

Making us stand back away from the counter, he lifts me up on to it and I pull him so he's between my legs and he's definitely lined up to pound me into oblivion. I shift so he can pull my shorts and lacy underwear off. Then I unbutton and unzip his pants and push down his boxers and I pull him out. I love having a tall boyfriend.

He lines his hips up with me and pushes into me slowly at first. After the first couple of pumps he's much faster and he just goes for it. Don kisses and bites at my neck and chest and leaves a hickey on my chest where it isn't visable but it's there and it's going to be sore for a couple of days and I swear if someone touches it, there will be hell to pay.

Don's movements become much more frantic and I moan. "Don," I pant out. "Oh my goodness. Oh, Don. Yeah, that's it. Right Goddamn there." I pant out in his ear. "Holy, damn it, fuck," I yell out. I rest my head on his shoulder as he growls in my ear as he lets his release out. "Oh babe. That was, yep. I could get used to this." I look up and I see him smiling widely. I place my hand on his cheek. "I really love your smile." Wait, love? Where did that come from? He's probably going to notice because it's his job.

"Thank you." He kisses me once again and he grows hard inside of me as soon as I trail my fingers down his sides and I slip my tongue into his mouth. He picks me up and moves us to the couch and starts moving again once I'm on my back and it's a lot faster to come this time since we are both still so sensitive. "I..." he's about to say something when the phone rings. I reach over to the coffee table while he's still inside of me.

"Hello?" I pant out.

"Emily?" That was a wake up call. It's Mac. "What are you doing?"

"Just ran to the phone Mac." Don's eyes widen with mischief. "Didn't know if it was dispatch or not since it was in my room." He doesn't buy it but he doesn't say anything about it.

As soon as he starts talking, Don starts moving his hips and kissing my neck again. "Well you and Don need to keep an eye on the girl he and I talked to tonight tomorrow. Stella and I have her schedule, come by the lab and get it at around six."

"Got it." I pant and surpress a moan.

"And will you have lunch with me tomorrow?"

"Of course Mac," I say a bit rudely but I'm trying to get Don to stop.

"What's wrong?" I giggle at the ticklish part of my neck that Don found with his tongue.

"Oh Don's just trying to distract me, nothing going on here. He's teaching me hockey. Now I should probably go. Cell phones aren't aloud in class."

"Have fun with that." I hang up and toss my phone to the table again.

"Donald, not cool."

"But oh so much fun."

"Once more. This time," I push the coffee table away as much as I could and I turn us so we land on the floor. "I'm on top."

* * *

><p>Don and I are following the girl he and Mac were talking to last night, the rich one that went to dinner with Bentley.<p>

"So you have an older brother, an older sister, and a detective for a father? Did your old man dust you for prints when you got home from a date?" This is actually a nice conversation about my dad instead of the old dreary ones we usually have. It was nice to laugh about my dad.

"If it was up to the men in my family I wouldn't have known the boys existed till I was twenty-one."

"I'm sure the boys knew you existed."

I smile and laugh. "Was that a line babe? Did you just bust out your game on me?"

He smiles and looks away. "What?" The tips of his ears are turning red and his cheeks were pink.

"It was, wasn't it? Look at you, you're blushing."

"Game? What game? I have no game. If I did that's probably as good as it gets."

"I think it's pretty good. I must have rocked your world last night for you to be this happy today."

"I think it was this morning actually." I laugh.

"Detectives. Oh, I'm not interrupting anything, am I?" I turn and look at the woman we are following today. She get's into the back of the car and starts yapping her big mouth again. "You two have been trailing me for the last couple of hours. Now, if you are going to follow me, you may as well have a copy of my itinerary. We've got lunch at Stang's in, oh, fifteen minutes. That may be a bit expensive on your boyfriend's salary. The rest of the day is here, Saks, Bloomingdales... I've got a meeting at four in the office, you get the idea. And uhm, I jotted down my cell phone incase you have trouble keeping up. Have a nice day." She gets out and leaves.

"That woman pisses me off," Don says. Wow he must be pissed if he says that. He gets out of the car and into the backseat. I turn.

"What are you looking for?"

"Something to help put her in handcuffs the next time I see her." He picks up a hair and shows it to me.

"Not bad for a guy on a city salary."

"Thank you." I wait for him to get into the front seat and we leave.

* * *

><p>"Mac, I'm here for our lunch." He smiles.<p>

"Good. What do you want? I'm buying."

"You don't have to buy Mac. I can pay for my own food." He grabs his coat and leads me out to the elevator.

"And how many times have I ever let you buy your own food?" I look down.

"Never. Fine, lets do chinese because Don hasn't been in the mood for it and I have been and we haven't eaten it yet."

"Chinese it is. How are you and Don?"

"Really good Mac. We finally just got all of his stuff moved over."

"All by yourselves?"

"Danny helped with exchanging the couches. It was difficult to get everything moved in because we work so much and we do need some down time but we also had over a month to do it. It worked out just fine."

"I'm glad."

"How's life with Peyton?" I ask.

"Actually, I wanted to talk to you about over lunch. She sent me this." He hands me a letter that tells him that they are done because she can't bring herself to leave London again as we step onto the elevator.

"Mac, I'm sorry. She was good but if neither of you want a long distance then please don't do it. I don't want to see you miserable."

"It was all her. But I understand. Sure it's disappointing but I couldn't leave America just like she couldn't leave England. It's just not something we are willing to do."

"Understandably so. When did you get the letter?"

"A week ago."

"And you're just now telling me? Great, thanks Mac."

"You know I love you. I just couldn't bare to see you so sad. I knew you really liked us together."

"I did. Who knows?"

"You and the lab. I don't think Don knows but he might."

"I'll end up bringing it up at some point." I laugh. We get off the elevator and walk out to the parking garage. "So I have a question. How did you and Peyton tell everyone?"

"Everyone found out individually. It got back to Sinclair and he reprimanded me for not telling him myself but I brushed it off." He looks at me. "Are you thinking about telling more people?"

"Yeah. I just don't know if it would be a good idea to go to the crime lab or just keep it a secret."

"Move to the lab. We could use you."

"But Don doesn't need a new partner. I'm good enough."

"There's your father's jealousy coming out." I chuckle as we park next to the curb near a chinese restaurant. "You've got so much of your father in you. You look just like him."

I smile. "Thanks, Mac. Do you think he would approve of Don?"

"Yes and no."

"No?"

"I don't think your father wanted you dating a cop. I don't think he wanted you to be a cop. He wanted you to follow through with your dream of being a writer but you're a damn good detective."

"Thank you."

"Your father would approve of his personality and attitude."

"Do you approve?"

"I do. Good choice in detectives."

"Thank you Mac. I really needed that reassurance in my life. It's been wild and fun and yet stressful. Now tell me about your time in London."

* * *

><p>"Yeah of course. Will do." I hang up the phone. "Don, that was Stella. She wants us to come up with hospitial records for food poisoning outbreaks on the night that Mitchel Bentley and Joanna Morgan died. He nods and we get on it.<p>

* * *

><p>"There's only one food poisoning outbreak that matches the bacteria you discovered in the vics stomach contents," I say walking into Stella's office. "It came from Kalergios Grill in Midtown. I ran checks on the names that the Health Department sent over. A guy named Steve Kaplan showed up in the ER at St. Vinny's with a severe case of food poisoning, Kaplan just made a big scene at the ER. Demanded perscription pain killers."<p>

"For food poisoning? Must have been more than just a bad stomach," Stella says.

"And get this, Kaplan was aquitted of the 2004 murder of a model."

"Kaplan was Joanna Morgan's target. He's the missing piece. He fits the profile," Hawkes says.

"A man who got away with murder."

"Danny and I will talk to him." We go back to the precinct and some uniforms are bringing him in. "Don, Danny and I are going to talk to someone so we will be over there if you need us."

"Got it. So when are we going out to dinner?"

"Does tomorrow work for you? I think the cases will be done by then," Danny asks.

"Perfect." Uniforms come in with Steve Kaplan. Great.

"Gotta go," I say. Danny and I turn around and we sit Mr. Kaplan down. "We need your signature Mr. Kaplan." He looks absolutely dreadful.

"So, what, you were the one who pulled me out of bed to come down here? Not bad," he tells me looking at my body suggestively.

"We appreciate you coming down under the circumstances." Danny leans over toward Kaplan.

"Well, hey, if this paper here is going to help me with my lawsuit against those bastards who, uh, poisoned me, where do I sign?"

"It's just an affidavit saying that you became ill after dining at Kalergios Grill. Says here on your rap sheet you're right-handed, Steve," Danny points out.

"Having some shoulder trouble?" I ask. He moves to get up.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Danny says, pulling him back down in the seat. I get up.

"Oh what do we have here?" I pull his shirt over and I see a bandaged shoulder. I grab his shoulder and squeeze after he groans. "Oh I'm sorry, did I hurt you?" I let go. "Pain killers aren't prescribed for food poisoning."

"You know something. I like her." He smiles widely.

"Yeah? Yeah, you like her, huh? You like her as much as you liked Joanna Morgan?" His smile disappears as he's looking at me and hears her name. He looks at Danny and he's all business now.

"Whoa, wait a second. She pulled a gun on me, buddy. She tried to kill me. That's self defense."

"How did you know her?" I ask.

"I met her on the internet. She, uh." He looks suggestively at me. "She couldn't get enough of me." He laughs. "And when I, uh, I saw her picture I, you know, I had to have her."

"Pay attention here lover boy, all right? How did you end up at the museum?"

"She said she liked to have sex in dangerous places. I mean, we, uh, made it to the top of the museum steps, and, uh, she started to shake real bad. Then she turns around and get's got a gun in her hand. She hesitates. We struggled, the gun went off. Hey, it's not what I had in mind for the evening, but like I said before- self defense."

"If it was self defense, why did you run away and not call the police?"

"Man, who's gonna believe a guy who just beat a murder rap?"

"You're going to be charged with murder, Mr. Kaplan," I say helping him up from his chair and cuffing him. "It will be up to your attorneys to raise a claim of self defense." He laughs.

"Well, well, well. You guys do your job, and if my lawyer is on the ball, you'll be testifying in my defense."

"I got to tell you, I really hope your lawyer does drop the ball. Hey, do me a favor, get this moron out of my face." Danny says to another cop. He takes him and I'm annoyed. I go to my desk and sit down with my face in my hands.

"What's up, Em?"

"I'm literally going to work in he A/V lab with Adam. I can't stand perps looking at me like I'm walking sex anymore. I've delt with it for almost ten years and I don't want to anymore."

"You've got this Em. One more case then you can switch to the crime lab if you want."

"But I don't want. That was terrible, like that wasn't even a sentence. I mean, I don't want to switch because if I do, you'll get another new partner and we won't work a lot of the same cases anymore and we won't have lunch together and maybe not dinner for a while because we will be working different shifts so that means no breakfast. It wouldn't be good."

"How about you work part time in the lab?"

"I'd rather not. Unless I knew for sure that I would have right around the same schedule I have now. My internal clock knows this one."

"Em, tough it out for a few more cases and if you really want to switch then I'll be sure to get a male partner. If I get a new one."

"Good. Cause you're mine." Don smiles. "Let's finish up here and go home." He nods.

"I need to talk to Fern Lazlow though. Stella will be with me."

"Gotcha. I'll finish up my half now and I'll meet you at home. It's so nice to say that."

"It is. I'll tell it to Mac or Stella and I just smile."

"I know, Mac told me over lunch today."


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N:** Super sorry I'm a couple days late! Studying for exams and writing articles takes a lot out of you. Turns out a friend of mine might have a pregnant girlfriend and he doesn't know. I've got to be there to support him but I plan on uploading a couple more throughout the week to make up for being late. Review!

**Chapter Nine**

**Emily**

I sit against the arm of couch and Don is right next to me. My legs are bridged over his thighs while his arm is next to my shoulder and he is playing with my hair.

"I like your hair." He says.

"I like yours too. When it grows out a little bit more, it looks really good. I've always liked long hair on guys but I think I'm liking this short cop look."

"It's working well for me so far."

"Oh really?"

"Yes, it got me you didn't it?"

"It was a piece of the wonderful package but it did."

"I'm happy it got me you." I smile. "Today has been good. Finally a day off with you."

"Agreed. We don't get too many of these, let alone one together. One of us is on call though, right?"

"Both of us."

"Great." I groan and let my head fall back. "Let's enjoy the rest of the day as much as we can so we can get something out of this day off together."

"I agree." He closes his eyes and rests his head against the back of the couch.

"You know what sounds even better than this right now?" I ask him.

"Hm?"

"Sleep. A nice, deep sleep."

"Mmmh. That does sound better."

"Let's go take a nap. I move to get up but the couch is already underneath me. "The couch is so comfy."

"But we will get bad necks. Bed. Come one." Don gets up and slides his arms under my knees and back. He lifts me up and I lean against him as he carries me to our bedroom. Don lays me down and then climbs over me and falls onto his side next to me, I turn as Don pulls me closer to himself and I lay with him. "Mmm. You smell good," Don tells me.

"Thank you. I shower every day."

"I'm glad you do."

"Because you can use the excuse to save water and shower with me."

"We don't get very clean in the shower."

I chuckle. "Let's sleep. I could really go for a nap right about now."

* * *

><p>"Flack," Don answers. "Got it. Give me thirty." He hangs up. "Groom murdered at a wedding in Central Park."<p>

"Think the bride did it?" I ask looking over my shoulder. "It's all about the bride on the wedding day, he could have been taking the spotlight."

"All ready drawing conclusions? You've just woken up."

"And?" I lean over and I press my lips to his. He holds me there longer than I was intending for, yet I can't muster up a reason to care. "Let's get dressed."

* * *

><p>"So the Hatfields and the McCoys couldn't keep it together long enough to merge the family fortunes," Don says as he and I walk up the stairs with Mac.<p>

"Who's the vic?"

"The groom. Brett Dohn, 28 years old. Emily thinks that the bride did it. Maybe he was stealing the spotlight. She came up with that theory just from the phrase 'groom murdered at a wedding' and she had just woken up."

"She and her dad did love solving riddles."

"Guy made it big in the stock market. The bride is Emma Blackstone. She's a mess," I say directing the conversation back to the case. No need to talk about my dad right now.

"She give you anything?" Mac asks.

"From what she said between the hysterics, which I translate pretty well, I sadly don't think she knows anything. Don had to call me in just so then I could understand a word she was saying. I thought you guys would be more intuned with the blubbers. Right here," I say directing our path of travel into the crime scene.

"We are plenty intune, we just chose to let female detectives do the deciphering for us," Don tells me.

"What if I'm ever crying and you can't understand a word I'm saying?"

"We'll cross that bridge when we get there." I roll my eyes and let a slight smile rest on my lips. "Gives new meaning to cold feet," Don says to Mac.

"No apparent gunshot wound or stab wounds, no signs of petechial hemmorhaging," Hawks says.

"So he wasn't strangled."

"Could be internal injuries from the fight. We won't know until we get him on the table."

"Wasn't in the fight," I tell Hawks. "No one Don or I interviewed has seen the groom since the rehersal dinner last night."

"So how'd the only guy not throwing punches end up dead?"

"Don't know Mac. I'm gonna go talk to some more people, have a good time collecting evidence." I can't believe there weren't any other detectives that could have taken this over with them. Today was supposed to be my day off. I asked for today off. I shouldn't have been called for this. Neither should have Don. Today was his first day off in over a week. Poor guy.

"So George, you said you went out with Brett after the rehearsal dinner?" Don asks when we tell him that we still need to speak with him.

"Yeah, it was his last night of being a free agent so we got wasted, you know, bar hopping."

"You were with him the whole time?"

"Yeah it's kind of fuzzy. At like midnight, I looked up, everyone was gone so I hit the next bar." Don writes it down. "I just can't believe he's never coming back." I feel sympathy for him as we walk away after asking a couple more routine questions.

"So we are putting together a list of wedding guests and employees. See if we can tack down a motive," Don says.

"There's a smudge on the curb consistent with the yellow stain on the botton of Brett Dohn's shoe."

"He stepped on the curb while it was still wet," I point out, which is obvious.

"I'll find out when the curb was painted," Don says.

"Our groom was alive there, but dead in there." Mac says looking straight ahead, behind us and then back behind himself.

"Killed somewhere in between."

"No blood, no drag marks, no murder weapon. How do you kill a guy in a twenty foot space and leave no evidence at all?"

"Mac, you gotta stop with all of these rhetorical questions. I can't answer them till later." Mac chuckles. "All right, Don will find out when the curb was painted and I'll leave with Danny to help with anything."

"Oh? You're leaving Don by himself?"

"He's a big boy. He knows how to take care of himself."

"Unless that means cooking and eating. He orders in all the time."

"Trust me, I saw his apartment enough to know that, but he makes a bomb breakfast. So good."

"At least I have some cooking skills," Don says. "You guys are so insulting."

"You know we are kidding. Now go be a detective and use those skills. I'm going to the crime lab. Text me any info you think will be relevant to the case or otherwise. I'll let Danny know the case-related ones." I wink at Don and he smirks then walks away.

* * *

><p>I sit in Danny's office and I work on his computer while he's down in autopsy. I told him that the curb was painted at six this morning if that made any difference. He thanked me and left.<p>

'_Danny just ditched me._' I text Don. His reply isn't for a half an hour but before that Stella calls me.

"Emily I need you to get to the court house right now. Something is on my truck and I don't know what it is and I'm scared."

"On my way. What is on your truck?" I ask. I make my way to the elevator to go downstairs and run the three blocks it takes to get to the court house.

"A box. I'm not touching it."

"Good. I'll be there in two minutes, maybe less." I see Lindsay on my way and I pull her out of her office and pull her into the elevator as it closes. I mouth Stella and she's curious.

"Stay on the phone with me."

"I will. If you blow up and die, I'll be sure to mention that your last words were, stay on the phone with me." Stella chuckles, anxiety fills it. Lindsy'as eyes widen. "I'm at the bottom of the building I'm going to start running now, I'll be there soon with Lindsay. Call bomb squad if you think it's a bomb."

"I'm going to a uniform right now." She hangs up as do I.

"Stella thinks someone put a bomb on the avalanche she's driving," I tell Lindsay. She needs some friends, she's scared." When I reach the scene with Linds, Stella is behind police squad cars. I run up to her as the probe goes out to examine it.

"Stell, you all right?" I place a hand on her shoulder and she is worried.

"Did you see anyone?" Lindsay asks. "Get any threats?"

"No, no, nothing."

"Do you think this is related to the Russo trial?" I ask.

"Maybe. I mean this is just a preliminary hearing. The real trail is not for months."

'_This is why you shoulda stuck with me Em. How's the crime lab?_'

'_Stella found a box on the avalanche and bomb squad is looking at it right now. I'm at the court house with her and Lindsay._'

"Detectives!" Someone says. We walk over and look at the screen that is linked with the camera on the probe. "Let's see what we got here." It zooms in. "No wires, no power source. I'm not picking up anything electronic. It's not a bomb." Stella sighs in relief.

"Thank you." We go with another person to cut the rope around it and open it. He opens the lid and hands it to Lindsay who put gloves on right before. He lifts a bag, of puzzle pieces.

"It's a puzzle," the man says. He hands it to Stella and she looks at it and is contemplating. She takes the box and walks away from Lindsay and I.

"What was all that about?" I ask.

"Does she think she knows who did it?" I shrug. "Lets get this lid back to the lab. Maybe there are some finger prints."

"I hope so. I want to know who sent this."

"Are you going to work with me in the lab?"

"I want to." We start walking back to the lab. "Mac wants me to transfer into the lab so Don and I don't have to sneak around. What's it like for you and Danny?"

"I don't think anyone, aside from you and Flack, actually knows about us. We keep it down low."

"So you think you could ever come out and have a relationship in front of everyone?"

"I think so. Mac already gave us the talk. The one where we can't bring personal matters to work. We need to focus on work until we are off the clock and outside of the building." We step into the elevator.

'_Was it a bomb?_'

'_No, puzzle pieces. She left with the box. Linds and I are going to dust the lid for prints._'

"All right. I could handle that. Are you guys getting by with that?"

"Yes, but I'm sure its because we can see each other everyday."

"Don and I live together. I'm sure it'll be difficult to see each other all the time though. Knowing Sinclair, he will find every possible way to deprive Don and I of seeing each other."

"He just doesn't want his staff getting involved with each other then possibly disrupting the flow of things. Danny and I don't care." We step out of the elevator and we go to one of the labs and she hands me a pair of gloves.

* * *

><p>"Guys, I think we have blood on some of the pieces," Stella says walking into the lab Lindsay and I are in. By this time Adam has joined us. Stella dumps the pieces onto the table and she swatches it and sprays the liquid to identify if it's blood or not. "Definetely blood."<p>

"This puzzle is huge," Adam says. "I tried to contact the manufacturer, Danco, to see if they could, you know, send us a picture of the box or something to help us put it together. They went out of business six years ago."

"Great," Lindsay says. She runs a black light over a piece and looks at it. "Found traces of some kind of powder. No prints so far."

"Wait a minute," I say. "The diameter of each drop of blood looks like it's less than one millimeter."

"High velocity spatter," Lindsey says. "It's consistent with a gun shot. Maybe there is a connection to the Russo trial. Maybe they were sending some kind of warning."

"I don't think so, Lindsay. Puzzles just aren't their style," Stella tells her. "This needs to be put together right away. There could be a body out there to go with this blood. Adam, this is top priority for you."

"Okay." Lindsay starts processing the rest of the box and Adam and I start to put the pieces together. We get very frustrated, until Adam sees something.

"You've got that look of realization on your face. What is it?" I ask. He removes part of the puzzle and holds it out to me. There's a green x on it. "You're supposed to remove it? I noticed a bunch of green x's on a lot of my pieces."

"Wait." He puts the pieces together that were separated at first by the x. He smiles.

"Good job Adam!" I high five him as my phone vibrates against my leg.

'_Do you believe in the whole stay away night before the wedding or else bad things will happen superstition?_' Don asks.

'_Maybe if I was really scared that it wasn't going to work, but my parents didn't when they got married and they haven't been together in years. I was shipped off to live with my dad. Best thing that ever happened to me._'

"Are you texting Flack?" Adam asks.

"Yeah. Just asked me the strangest question," I tell him as I slide the phone into my pocket again. "He asked me if I believed in the bad luck superstition related to marriages. You know, the one where you can't spend the night before the wedding together or it's bad luck."

"Maybe he's planning something?"

"He's working a case. The case I was on before Stella asked me to do this, was a man that was killed on his wedding day and showcased at his own wedding. The bride found him."

"Gross." I nod as I pull my phone out.

'_So would you do that if we were to ever get married?_'

'_Probably. I'd honestly stay with Lindsay. She and I would get mani-pedis and shop for sexy lingere. (;_'

"Adam, I think you were on to something."

"I'm awesome like that." I laugh. "All right, so I've got the shape of a building coming into view."

"Me too." He and I finish in about forty five minutes. Stella walks in and she's shocked.

"Wow, it's 3-D."

"Yeah, that's why the computer couldn't find any matches among the pieces I scanned," Adam started. "It didn't recognize the algorithm."

"It thought it was two-dimensional," I say.

"Looks like you only have half of a puzzle here. Are you done?"

"Yeah, that's all he sent. But you were right about the blood. The predominant size of each of the stains is less than a millimeter," I tell her.

"Definitely high-velocity spatter," Adam says.

"Where's that piece?

"We don't know. We looked everywhere, it wasn't in the box," I say.

"Look again."

"You think it has significance?" Adam asks.

"Until we know who that blood belongs to..."

"We'll look again," Adam finishes.

"I'll retrace my steps," Stella tells us.

"I hate puzzles," Adam mumbles.

"I understand. I've always hated these kinds of puzzles. Riddles with clues and motives, I'm great, these... Shoot me now." Adam chuckles. "All right. Let's search around for this missing puzzle piece, it has to be in here somewhere if Stella doesn't find it." I look at the table. "Think it could have fallen inside of the building?"

"Maybe, but do we have to take it apart? I spent so long on it," I look at him. "We spent so long on it," I correct myself.

"Yes, we need to take it apart." So we do, and we don't find anything. Adam tries spraying LCV on it and we see latent blood. We do research and we come up with some interesting stuff. But when Stella comes back with Lindsay, she has a puzzle piece, just not the right one.

"This piece I found obviously doesn't fit."

"That's because it's not supposed to," Adam says. "When a puzzle comes from a manufacturer, it's connected as flat boards through the use of a frame. The pieces with painted "X" on them, are part of the frame that need to be removed in order to put the puzzle together."

"Yeah, learned that the hard way," I tell her. "But what we also learned is that the puzzle piece we've been looking for isn't actually missing. It was never in the box to begin with. When we was looking for it, I hit the surrounding areas with the LCV, and I saw latent blood near the spatter,"

"So the puzzle was put together with blood spattered on it," Lindsay says.

"And when the spatter dried, the missing piece was deliberately removed," Stella finishes.

"Had to be. And the person who removed the piece had blood on their finger, causing the swipe with directionality.

"The location the missing piece represents could be very important. Maybe the answer's in that building."

"That's what we thought, so I located the actual building on 54th Street. Now, based on the number of windows on the adjacent pieces, I think our missing piece is floors 32 through 36."

"I contacted building security. And there was no sign of criminal activity or anything unusual on those floors. However, 36 has been vacant for the last month and they haven't started showing it yet," I tell Stella. "Let's go to that floor guys, I need to get out in the field again." They nod and Lindsay and I go.

* * *

><p>We walk around the floor with our hands on our guns, ready for an ambush and she's ahead of me.<p>

"Emily?" I walk up to Lindsay.

"There's another box," I say, seeing what she found.

"And a satchel and a small chalk outline."

"Let's get the rest of the crew over here." She makes the call and we get pictures and evidence.

* * *

><p>That night, Adam and I put this one together and this one had blue X's instead of green. Lindsay processes the box and bag like the first one. Stella gets the satchel.<p>

'_Hey, don't think I'll be home before ten. There's leftovers in the fridge._' I text Don. I hope he gets it in time.

"Emily, can you do a background check on the guys at the furniture store?" I nod and finish putting a piece down.

"I'll actually just ask Don to do it. It'll give him an excuse to come up here and see us, say hi." She nods.

'_Can you run some background checks for me? I need these guys._' I send him a list and I get a yes back.

"So Don should be coming up here soon once he's done with the background checks," I tell Stell.

"Okay. So I think we will get another building soon."

"Does that mean I have to go back out in the field? I'm going to need coffee with that request," I say.

"Let Flack know. He should be coming up soon."

"I'll just go down with him and bug him or something like that. I need a break, so do you. Want some coffee?"

"Sure," she says. I nod.

"Got it. I'll go down when Don comes up."

"Here he comes now." I nod and don't look I'm sure he can recognize me by now. I play with one of the pieces with blood on it.

"So you're sure this is all blood?" Stella asks.

"Yes," I answer.

"The x's are blue on this one," she points out.

"Yeah, that striked me as weird. They should be the same color if they came in the same pack," I say. I hear footsteps.

"Look at you in the crime lab. Looks good." Don says.

"Thank you, Don." I smile at him and I lean back to look at the piece in my hand.

"Got those background checks you asked for. Weren't very many. Lab coat is hot."

"Should I put goggles on and curl my hair so it falls around my boobs?"

"Yes."

I roll my eyes. "Typical guy. Maybe one day babe." I take the background checks after I take the lab coat off. "I need to take these to Lindsay, then I need coffee. I'm not sure if I'll be back tonight."

"I know, I got your text."

"Remember, food in the fridge. Don't order in. We're broke." He nods. "Anyway, what'd you find in the background checks?"

"Day manager is a pedophile."

"Way to be blunt about it. Puzzles are toys, Lindsay and I found a child's body chalk outline. It makes sense. It's gotta be him."

"What are you even talking about?" I go into a really long explination about the evidence so far and how much we've found and how great Adam has been doing. It's such a long explination, that I explain it well after I give Lindsay her files and I get coffee brewing for Adam and I. "Wow, that's a lot."

"It all makes sense. And I'm sure that Stella and Lindsay will make that connection." I pour coffee into a mug for me and I finish it with Don before I go get Adam and he has his own coffee. There are no food or drinks aloud in the lab unless it's evidence.

"You look exhausted," Don comments while I'm in the lab, finishing the rest of the puzzle.

"I am. Today has been a long day."

"Damn right. Why don't you come home and let Adam take over from here?"

"Because he's done so much today and I just want to stay and help him finish. I'll be home in two hours. I promise." He leans over and kisses the side of my head.

"All right."

"See you in a couple of hours."

* * *

><p>Those two hours were hell. I walk in the door of the apartment and I dump my purse on my dresser. I take my gun out and same with the clip and I put those on my bedside table. I strip out of my clothes and I crawl into bed naked and exhausted.<p>

"Em?" Don says tiredly.

"It's me. Goodness, I'm so," I stop to yawn. "tired. Jeez." I close my eyes and within seconds, I'm out.

* * *

><p>I'm in the lab with Adam again today. He's on the phone with Stella when I walk in, finished with my first cup of coffee.<p>

"Sorry, Stella, John Andrews isn't your guy. He was nowhere near the courthouse or the office building. The ankle bracelet puts him only at work and at home. But I have something else. I finished the second half of the puzzle. There's a second missing piece, 29th floor. 5630 Broadway." He hangs up the phone.

"The puzzle looks good. You did good Adam, sorry for bailing out on you. I was exhausted and I'm not used to the whole staying up late thing. I've done it a few times since I moved here."

"It's all right. I left shortly after you did." My phone buzzes in my pants and I want to check it but I don't. I continue to talk to Adam. "I was pretty tired too."

"At least I'm not the only one." He chuckles.

"Yeah, you're good. By the way, check your phone whenever you want or need. It may be Stella or Lindsay. Or Don, not that that would be a surprise."

"You're too sweet. I'm not going to check my phone. Unless I'm getting a call. But I do have a text, do we have anything to do right now?"

"No. Check your phone."

'_So the guy we talked to, George, he's the one who stuffed the vics stomach with packing peanuts. Then wrapped him. Then moved him to the park. To win a bet. That is seriously the stupidest guy I've ever met._'

'_Idiot._'

'_Do me a favor, go check to see if Danny is done finding the murder weapon._'

'_Adam and I are on it._'

'_Did you make a new friend in the crime lab?_'

'_I don't think he likes me very much because I'm talking to you all of the time._'

"All right, Don wants us to go see if Danny found the murder weapon for the dead groom."

"On it." We walk to the lab that Danny is in and we walk in. "What are you so happy about?"

"I figured out what killed my groom."

"It wasn't the mother-in-law?"

"No. It was a missing wedding gift. Dental stone mold got me an insignia- S&S- and a little house," Danny says.

"Shecktel and Sage. Oh, they sell such amazing stuff," Adam says. "Oh! I'm a-a gift giver."

"I still don't actually have the murder weapon, but at least I know what I'm looking for. And I know that it's one weapon, not three."

"Since you're having all the luck today, maybe you can help me put together a puzzle, or at least tell me what the green goo is that Doc pulled off your groom's pants. I opened up my big mouth, and then said I could figure it out, and now I'm stuck."

"All right, well, what's it worth to you?"

"25 bucks."

"Danny don't sell him out like that."

"Harmless fun Seattle. 25?"

"Yeah."

"All right, I was never here for this conversation. Good bye boys. I'll trash your office now Messer, get ready for the cleaning of your life."

'_Danny found the weapon, now he needs to find the actual one, not a replical. Hope that helps. By the way, wanna help me mess up Danny's office? He's conning Adam out of $25._'

'_Typical Messer. Thanks for the information and the offer, but I'm going to have to decline. I'm sorry. Come down to the precinct and have lunch with me._'

'_Gladly. What are you in the mood for?_'

'_Pasta._'

'_I've got some left over pasta at home, I'll get some of that._'

'_(:_'

* * *

><p>I cover Don's eyes with my hands. "Guess who."<p>

"Stella?" He guesses, joking obviously.

"No, try again."

"Lindsay?"

"Closer, but no."

"Emily,"

"Ding, ding, ding! We have a winner!" I take my hands off of his eyes. "And your prize is," I set down a container in front of him. "Food, more specifically pasta!"

"Thank you, Em. Your pasta is honestly the best."

"Thanks, Don. You know, you're kind of the best too. At almost everything you do."

"Almost?"

"Who does the cooking?"

"Right." I laugh. "What's going on with that puzzle?" Don asks as we go into the staff lounge to heat up the pasta.

"It's a puzzle of New York and we keep finding little clues. Redwood indigenus to California, then a pattern from a church in Turkey on a satchel. It's weird, but the pedophile, isn't who we are after."

"I heard this morning." We eat lunch and continue to talk in the lounge. We laugh and tease each other, till Danny comes in.

"Flack, we got him. Let's go interrogate!"

"On my way." He turns to me. "Thank you so much for your pasta, it was so good."

"Course Don." He presses the corner of his mouth to the corner of mine as if we were french and we were greeting each other, only we are leaving. "I'll see you after work."

* * *

><p>I go back to the lab and Adam and I stare at the model.<p>

"You did a really good job with this and finding the clues. No one gives you as much credit as you deserve. I really think if we didn't have you, we wouldn't have a lot of the arrests we do have," I tell him.

"Thank you Emily, that means a lot coming from you."

"Coming from me?"

"We'll when you transfered over here, you made friends quickly and you immediately started up a relationship with Flack and you were one of the big dogs on campus."

"It's because Mac is my uncle, I've met most of the people here before, like Danny and Stella, I think I've even met Don once."

"You're just so lucky that you have all of this recognition and you have the good life aside from the dangerous and frustrating parts of the job."

"Trust me, you don't want to be in the spotlight as a cop. I got a lot of rape threats when I was in Seattle. And it's so much more fun to be in here testing evidence and searching for things because running takes a lot out of you. Then there are the interrogations and the perps. Some of them smell really bad. Then some are down right disgusting. You have no idea how many times I've had to either walk out myself or shove Don out of the room because he couldn't control himself because the perp was disrespecting a woman. Mac got the same way."

"Oh, that's scary, getting those threats." I nod. "I'm sorry you had to suffer through that. Do Mac or Flack know?"

"No. Well, Mac maybe but Don doesn't. I don't plan on telling him right now."

"Telling who what?" I hear Mac say.

"Oh nothing just talking to Adam."

He nods, not buying it. "Thought I should see this puzzle for myself."

"It's cool, right? It was an absolute nightmare to put together," I say.

"Well, it's not easy to assemble a puzzle without the picture on the box."

"And the guy sent it with two missing pieces."

"That's the Riverton building. That was my first crime scene."

"No way," I say.

"This was my first New York apartment. This to scale?"

"Uh, y-yeah. As-As far as I can tell," Adam stutters.

"This high-rise should be much taller in relation to the Chrysler Building."

"How-How could you know that?" I ask.

"I got engaged on that roof. This puzzle's about my life." We end up moving the puzzle so we can steam it and get prints off of it if there are any. "Adam, I need the DNA results from the blood on the first puzzle.

"The guy deliberately removed a piece from two different sections of the puzzle. He obviously wanted us to go to both places," Lindsay says to Stella as they walk in.

"Maybe he didn't know the second place was gone," Stella suggests. "But why would he send us to a building that no longer exists?"

"Because it's not about the buildings. The missing pieces have significance to my past."

"The puzzle's about you? Why would they put it on my truck?"

"He's using my team to get to me."

"What's going on, Mac?"

"I don't know. But I have no doubt, this has something to do with the 333 caller."

"The 333 caller?" Lindsay asks.

"It started in London. He was getting these calls at 3:33 a.m. He'd pick up, no one spoke. He switched hotels, and the calls continued," I answer for him.

"So you're saying, someone's stalking Mac?" Adam asks.

"It goes deeper. On the return trip, my luggage was stolen. When I finally received it, I found this inside." He holds up the t-shirt he showed me.

"A boy's bloody T-shirt?" Stella's mind clicks and she gets it. "To go with the chalk outline of a kid's body. Mac, why didn't you tell me?"

"I didn't know what it was about. I still don't, but clearly, he's escalating, and now he's involved you."

"You tested the blood on the T-shirt?" She asks.

"No match in CODIS. I sent it out. It does, however, bear a striking resemblance to the blood on the first puzzle."

"Common alleles at 12 of 16 loci."

"So the kid who owned the T-shirt and the guy who bled on the puzzle are brothers," Lindsey says.

"So where do we go now?" I ask.

"The rooftop where I got engaged." And that's what they did. I stayed at the lab and Don came up to keep me company in Mac's office while we waited. I caught him up on everything.

* * *

><p>When Mac and Stella came back, Adam and I got to work on the puzzle and this time, it's not New York.<p>

"This building in the Tribune Tower in Chicago. It all makes sense now. Over the years, 136 stones have been added to the Tribune Tower's ground level for world landmarks. Including the Redwood Forest, Hagia Sophia, and the Alamo." Adam and I hurry and piece the rest of this together and we end up with the Tribune Tower just like Mac said.

* * *

><p>The next morning after Mac booked our tickets after a long discussion that could probably be classified as an arguement...<p>

"Don, I have to leave with Mac."

"Stay home with me," he asks while his arms, clad in a purple shirt, are around my waist. "I'm gonna miss you."

"I'll only be gone a couple of days. You've got a murder to solve though. Go to the subway babe. Be safe."

"You be safe as well." He presses his lips tenderly to mine and I curl my toes as my heart speeds up. I pat him on his chest where his pink, black, and purple tie rests after we break apart. He actually matches today. It's cause I dressed him. I swear, he is color blind.


End file.
